This year you can get 24 days off in a row using just 14 days of leave

Here's the holiday hack we all need right now

Christmas is over. You’re broke, back at work, and already exhausted. All that sofa lounging was for nothing. And are those weird shakes down to mince pie withdrawal?

Things might seem a little bit grim right now, and we’re not going to try and convince you there’s anything particularly good about January.

But what we will do is cast your eyes forward to something that’ll do a Hakuna Matata on your winter blues.

This year you can be super crafty and get 24 days in a row off work by using just 14 days of annual leave.

This wonderful little holiday hack is possible because the May bank holidays land so close to each other this year – just three weeks apart. The May Day, or Early May, bank holiday is on 7 May, while the Spring bank holiday is on 28 May.

So to cash in on the extra-long break you just need to book time off work from Tuesday 8 May through to Friday 25 May (inclusive). This totals 14 days of leave, but you’ll actually get 24 days off thanks to the two bank holidays and the four weekends that fall in that period.

In the previous two years, the May bank holidays were four weeks apart, meaning you’d have had to relinquish 19 of your annual leave days in order to make use of both the public holidays. (That would, however, have given you a whopping 31 days away from work in total.)

So, there’s a little present for you. Now you just need to find a boss that will let you be away from work for three weeks…