Bridge days: turn a few days off into a proper break

Some days of annual leave stretch further than others. A Wednesday on its own gives you a Wednesday, but a day booked next to a bank holiday and a weekend can give you the better part of a week away. That is what a bridge day is: the single working day sitting between two things you already have off. When taken, the whole run joins up into one proper break.

The idea is easy once you see it. A bank holiday gives you the Monday, and the weekend before it is already yours, so straight away you have a long weekend. Now look at the working days on the other side, if just a day or two separates that long weekend from the next one, taking those days as leave links everything together. You only spend the days in the middle, and the weekends and the bank holiday come along for free.

The three worth planning around

How much a bridge is worth depends on which day of the week each holiday lands on, and that changes from year to year. Three chances come round most years, and they are lovely ones to build a trip around:

• Easter. Good Friday and Easter Monday already give you a four-day weekend. Add the working days on either side and four days of leave turns into a ten-day break, long enough to actually take a holiday.
• The early May weekend. The first Monday of May is a bank holiday, so four days' leave gets you nine days away.
• Christmas and New Year. When the dates fall kindly, three days of leave across a quiet week in between gives you ten unbroken days off over the festive break. Cheers!

Working out the good ones by eye is fiddly, because they shift with the calendar. Some years Christmas lands mid-week; other years it falls just right and a couple of days of leave buys you a fortnight. This planner will help show those days. Tell it your bank holiday region and it marks the bridge days on your calendar and points out the best-value break of the year, so you can see where your leave goes furthest.

One friendly tip: your colleagues are looking at the same calendar. The popular bridge days tend to get booked up first, so if you have your heart set on the week after Easter, it is worth putting in early. Don't be the person who always gets all long breaks, maybe alternate who gets what each year.