If you suffer from a serious case of wanderlust, there’s nothing worse than being tied to your paltry annual leave allowance; how are you supposed to book all of those amazing trips away without a surplus of paid holiday days, eh?

Well, we have some very good news for you, as, thanks to a perfect alignment of bank holidays in April 2019, you can transform just nine days of annual leave into a cool 18-day holiday.

It’s the perfect excuse to book that big trip you’ve always dreamed of taking, isn’t it?

As Good Friday falls on 19 April, Easter Monday on 22 April, and May Bank Holiday on 6 May, this means that your last day at work will be 18 April.

And, thanks to the six weekend days in the midst of it all, you won’t need to be back at your desk until 7 May.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

1. Friday 19 April: Bank holiday
2. Saturday 20 April: Weekend
3. Sunday 21 April: Weekend
4. Monday 22 April: Bank holiday
5. Tuesday 23 April: Annual leave
6. Wednesday 24 April: Annual leave
7. Thursday 25 April: Annual leave
8. Friday 26 April: Annual leave
9. Saturday 27 April: Weekend
10. Sunday 28 April: Weekend
11. Monday 29 April: Annual leave
12. Tuesday 30 April: Annual leave
13. Wednesday 1 May: Annual leave
14. Thursday 2 May: Annual leave
15. Friday 3 May: Annual leave
16. Saturday 4 May: Weekend
17. Sunday 5 May: Weekend
18. Monday 6 May: Bank holiday

Pretty sweet, right?

If you’ve still got some annual leave days to use up this year, you might want to think about using them to max out your Christmas.

As Christmas Day is on a Tuesday, Boxing Day is on a Wednesday, and New Year’s Day is on a Tuesday, all you need to do is book off 24, 27, 28 and 31 December. 

This will grant you a pretty nifty 11 days off in a row (for the price of four): you’ll head home for the holidays after work on Friday 21 December, and you won’t need to be back at your desk until Tuesday 2 January.

Perfect for some much needed R&R after the decadence of the festive season, eh?

However, before you rush to book all these days off (and you should rush, because we bet plenty of your co-workers will want to take advantage of these holiday bonanzas, too), do check your employer’s policies on annual leave.

It’s worth remembering that they don’t actually have to give you paid leave on bank or public holidays. Find out more about what you’re entitled to on the Gov.uk website now.

Image: Matheus Frade / Unsplash