Annual Leave Optimiser
Find the smartest way to spend your annual leave around UK bank holidays. Pick a region, a year and your leave allowance; we'll calculate the longest consecutive runs of days off and show you the dates to book.
Frequently asked questions
How does the Leave Optimiser work? +
It looks at the bank holiday dates for your chosen region and year, treats weekends and bank holidays as free days, and works out which combinations of annual leave dates produce the longest consecutive runs of days off. You pick how many leave days you have and what to optimise for.
Does the Leave Optimiser save my plan? +
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. You can bookmark the URL — your options are encoded in the query string — to share your plan or come back to it later.
Why does my employer not give me all bank holidays as paid leave? +
Bank holidays are not a statutory right in the UK. The legal minimum holiday entitlement is 5.6 weeks (28 days for full-time workers), which can include bank holidays at your employer's discretion. Many contracts grant the 8 (or 9/10) bank holidays on top of base annual leave — check your contract.