Even though it’s only mid-October, I’m already planning my travel for next year. Why? The limits!

My PTO is limited with my job, so I need to plan it carefully. I only get a certain of Paid Time Off (PTO) days per year. I’d really like to use them effectively, planning carefully ahead of time instead of just letting the travel bug creep up and bite me. There’s something really nice about having a trip to look forward to!

My budget? That’s limited too. I’m no millionaire (if I was, I wouldn’t have my job’s PTO limitation to worry about!), and Travel Tuesday—the best day of the year to book travel—is at the end of next month. So I have about 6 weeks to plan a year’s worth of travel, budget effectively, and get as many tickets as I can!

I wanted to take longer trips this year; I usually limit my time away to 3-5 days, and flights only 2-4 hours. I want to explore a lot, but I don’t want to spend a ton of time on airplanes. But if I can take longer trips somewhere a bit further away, I wouldn’t mind more hours in the air!

So here’s what I did: I mapped out the year, including the bank holidays. And I figured out the ways to use the least days off, with the longest trips possible! If you’re looking to book longer trips next year, feel free to use my plans. Keep in mind, I’m in the UK, so the days off might vary based on where you are:

Month	Bank Holiday	Potential Vacation	PTO Days Spent	Consecutive Days Off
April	18th & 21st	April 12th – 21st	4	10
April	18th & 21st	April 28th – 27th	4	10
May	5th	April 26th – May 5th	5	10
May	5th	May 3rd – 11th	4	9
May	26th	May 17th – 26th	5	10
May	26th	May 24th – June 1st	4	9
Aug	25th	Aug 16th – 25th	5	10
Aug	25th	Aug 23rd – 31st	4	9
Dec	25th & 26th	Dec 20th – 28th	3	9
Dec	25th & 26th (with Jan 1st)	Dec 25th – Jan 4th	4	11

Hope this helps! Happy travels x