After all the excitement of Christmas and New Year, it\u2019s not long before we all find ourselves back at work with no national holiday or long weekend to look forward to until April. Pair that with\u00a0biting cold\u00a0weather and cloudy grey evenings, and January tends to be an all-around dismal month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One way to ward off those\u00a0winter blues? Getting your 2026 holidays in the calendar.\u00a0And if\u00a0you\u2019re strategic about when you use your precious annual leave days, you\u2019ll be able to\u00a0squeeze\u00a0a whole seven weeks of holiday in, maybe even with a few extra days to spare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, there\u2019s no way you can cheat the system\u00a0and get more days off for free, but you can organise your holidays around\u00a0public holidays to make it feel as though your annual leave stretches even further.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, if you book off March 31 until April 3 next to the Easter bank holidays, you can get 10 days off for the price of just four annual leave days. And in August you can get nine days for the price of four by taking September 1 until September 4 off after the August bank holiday. All in all, you could take 23 days of annual leave this in order to enjoy\u00a053 days of holiday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every date you should take off in 2026 to get the most out of your annual leave
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\nMarch 31-April 3 (10 days off for four days leave)
\nMay 5-8 (nine days off for four days leave)
\nMay 26-29\u00a0(nine days off for four days leave)
\nSeptember 1-4\u00a0(nine days off for four days leave)
\nDecember 21-24 and December 29-31 (16 days off for seven leave days)
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How should you use all that time off, you ask? Well, you could\u00a0explore all the glorious things that the UK has to offer<\/a>. We\u2019ve got guides to the best of\u00a0England<\/a>,\u00a0Northern Ireland<\/a>,\u00a0Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Wales<\/a>\u00a0as well as locally curated guides to brilliant cities like Liverpool<\/a>, Edinburgh<\/a>, Glasgow<\/a>, Manchester<\/a>, Birmingham<\/a> and Brighton<\/a>. Or, you could go further afield. Find inspiration for trips abroad with Time Out\u2019s guides to the 26 best new things to do in the world<\/a>, the best cities in the world right now<\/a>\u00a0and the most underrated places to go in 2026<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n