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How to turn 20 days of annual leave into 48 days of holiday

Costa Rica is a fine option for a December break - This content is subject to copyright.
Costa Rica is a fine option for a December break - This content is subject to copyright.

We’re pretty lucky in Britain. While Americans are not entitled to any paid leave, making do with whatever their company is willing to dish out (typically around 10 days for those who have been employed for longer than a year), UK workers get a bare minimum of 28 days, including bank holidays, to gallivant around the globe.

So how do you make the most of them? Below we’ve outlined the simple ways to turn 28 days into considerably more by judiciously combining weekends and bank holidays with your yearly allowance.

Christmas 2018

Book four days off for an 11-day holiday (December 22-January 1)

Bank holidays: December 25 and 26, January 1

Book these days off: December 24, 27, 28 and 31

Does the prospect of cold weather and distant relatives fill you with dread? Then escape somewhere warm over the Christmas and New Year period. You’ve left it a little late for 2018, but if you still can book December 24, 27, 28 and 31 off work you can create an 11-day sweep of down-time. The picture is even rosier if you happen to live in Scotland, where January 2 is an added bank holiday – boosting that to a 12-day departure from the festive grind.

Where to go?

You want warmth and it’s winter – so where better than the Caribbean? Telegraph Travel’s Chris Leadbeater recommends Tobago. “Christmas is the busiest season in the Caribbean, as European holidaymakers flee the winter at home,” he says. “But little Tobago - which is tucked so closely into the south-west of the region that it is almost in the shadow of South America - tends to be a quieter option for a sojourn under blue skies.”

Another fine option is Mexico’s Riviera Maya, where there are affordable resorts and sandy beaches with the added bonus of Mayan ruins to discover.

Tobago - Credit: GETTY
Tobago Credit: GETTY

Easter

Book nine days off for a 17-day holiday (April 19-May 5)

Bank holidays: April 19 and 22, May 6

Book these days off: April 23, 24, 25, 26, 29 and 30, May 1, 2 and 3

Easter falls very late next year, with Good Friday coming on April 19 and Easter Monday on April 22. So for a proper escape combine your two Easter bank holidays with the Early May bank holiday on May 6. That’s an 17-day extravaganza for the price of nine days of annual leave.

Where to go?

The Canaries, Cyprus and Malta are reliable options for Easter sun, but you’ll need plenty to see and do over such a long period of time. The Spanish region of Andalusia might be the perfect option (we’re assuming a post-Brexit deal on flights to Europe will have been done and dusted, of course). You could start in Seville for its annual Holy Week celebrations (April 14-21), before spending a week touring the region’s interior (Cordoba, Granada and the pueblos blancos or “white towns” are the highlights) and then a week on the coast.

Annie Bennett, our Spain expert, recommends the seaside town of Zahara de los Atunes. “Although it is very popular with Spanish tourists in summer, late spring is perhaps the most interesting time to visit, when the bluefin tuna fishing season is underway and you can amuse yourself trawling around the many tapas bars trying the different cuts,” she says. “The attractive white towns of Tarifa and Vejer de la Frontera are about half an hour away, and Cádiz and Jerez around an hour’s drive.”

Other European options include Crete, which offers everything from beaches, good food and ancient sites to some of the continent’s most spectacular hiking routes, and Sicily, for Greek and Roman ruins, beautiful Baroque towns and, in Palermo, one of Italy’s most fascinating cities.

You could do far worse than Andalusia in spring - Credit: GETTY
You could do far worse than Andalusia in spring Credit: GETTY

Spring bank holiday

Book one day off for a four-day holiday (May 24-27)

Bank holiday: May 27

Book this day off: May 24

Nab another little break at the end of May by taking Friday 24 off work and enjoying a four-day jaunt.

Where to go?

Keep your carbon footprint in check by taking the Eurostar to the south of France. Jump on the 0719 May 24 departure from St Pancras and you’ll be in Marseille by 1447 – just in time for late lunch and a big bowl of bouillabaisse. The return on May 27 leaves at 1522 and gets back to London at 2212. That leaves more than enough time to explore France’s oldest city, with its designer hotels, galleries, chic restaurants and shops. Return fares from £130 at the time of writing.

Hello Marseille - Credit: GETTY
Hello Marseille Credit: GETTY

August bank holiday

Book one day off for a four-day holiday (August 23-26)

Bank holiday:August 26

Book this day off: August 23

Where to go?

“August’s last hurrah is perfect for a long weekend at Disneyland Paris,” says Chris Leadbeater. “Parents unenamoured with talking mice and ducks may also say that this is quite long enough.”

Other options include Amsterdam, which now has a non-stop Eurostar link, or its lesser-known sibling Rotterdam.

Or brave the busy roads and beat a path to one of Britain’s lesser-known gems. How about the Quantocks, beloved by Coleridge and Wordsworth, the Forest of Bowland, “England’s answer to Tuscany” according to Anthony Peregrine, or the Shropshire Hills, home to silence and solitude (even in August).

The Shropshire Hills - Credit: GETTY
The Shropshire Hills Credit: GETTY

Christmas 2019

Book five days off for a 12-day holiday (December 21-January 1)

Bank holidays: December 25, 26 and January 1

Book these days off: December 23, 24, 27, 30 and 31

Get ahead of your colleagues and snag your festive leave for 2019 now. Then you can disappear for 12 days while only losing five days of your annual allowance.

Where to go?

For something more exotic than 12 days of sunbathing on a Caribbean island try Costa Rica. You could spot monkeys and quetzals in the Monteverde Cloud Forest, enjoy hot springs in the shadow of Arenal Volcano, before flopping on one of the Nicoya Peninsula’s sandy beaches. Journey Latin America can organise an itinerary.

Other enticing options in December for those who like active holidays include South Africa, Oman and Sri Lanka.

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