If the holiday season passed you by in a flash, don't fret, because there's plenty more chances to relax on holiday this year. By strategically positioning your time off around public holidays, Victorians can turn just 20 days of annual leave into a whopping 58 days of holidaying in 2024. So hop to it and start planning your long weekend getaways now.
The next public holiday falls on January 26, and because this particular (incredibly controversial) public holiday falls on a Friday this year, there’s no need to lock in any additional leave to score a long weekend. But if you're not wanting to celebrate the occasion, here's some things to do on January 26 instead.
Similarly, the Labour Day public holiday and Easter will gift us with long weekends from March 9 to March 11 and March 29 until April 1, and although it’s good to get ahead with booking your Airbnb for the long weekend, there’s not much tweaking you can do to maximise those dates (apart from just adding extra annual leave days).
The first act of strategic leave-booking you can make in 2024 is in April – when ANZAC Day will take us all off work on Thursday, April 25. By booking four days off around ANZAC day, you can score yourself a nine-day holiday by using the weekends on either side. The dates to book annual leave are: Monday, April 22 to Wednesday, April 24 and Friday, April 26. Can't decide where to go for an autumnal getaway? The Grampians are absolutely lovely that time of year.
The next date for cashing in on your leave occurs in June, with the King’s Birthday celebration falling on Monday, June 10. By booking leave for the following four days, you can take another nine-day holiday.
Following this is our beloved AFL Grand Final public holiday, falling on Friday, September 27. If you take off the following week, you've got yourself a sweet 10 day holiday using only five days of leave.
The Melbourne Cup public holiday falls on Tuesday, November 5, so you could follow suit with the rest of Melbourne and take off the Monday, but arguably your annual leave is better spent on other dates.
To make sure you can capitalise on all of the holiday days of 2024’s Christmas season, it’s worth booking in your holiday in advance: booking off time from Monday, December 23 until Friday, January 3 will score you ten days of leave for the price of six (and with the weekends either side, you can take off on a 16-day holiday).
Our advice? Get in touch with your manager ASAP before your colleagues beat you to it. We’ll see you in Bali.