If you’re looking to work smarter, not harder in 2025, listen up. We’ve figured out how to maximise your holiday time next year by turning 26 days of annual leave into more than 60. Victoria is one of the luckier states, scoring the most public holidays in the country (tied with ACT). If you play your cards right, with some strategic planning you can get a whopping 64 days of rest and relaxation across the year. So, lock in your leave ASAP (before your colleagues beat you to it).
January 26 public holiday 2025
January 26 is on a Sunday in 2025, so the public holiday will land on Monday, January 27. If you take the Friday before or the Tuesday after off, you could swing a long four-day weekend. Alternatively, take leave from Tuesday, January 28 to Friday, January 31 for a glorious nine-day break.
Days off: Nine days (January 25-February 2)
Leave used: Four days
Labour Day 2025
Labour Day offers another ‘buy one, get four off’ situation. In Victoria, Labour Day public holiday falls on Monday, March 10. Simply take off the Tuesday to Friday after to be rewarded with nine days of chillaxing.
Days off: Nine days
Leave taken: Four days
Easter and Anzac Day 2025
Easter falls in mid-April next year, with Anzac Day landing just one week after. You could score a ten-day break from Good Friday on April 18 to April 27 – at the price of only three days of leave from April 22-24. Whatta win!
Days off: Ten days (April 18-27)
Leave used: Three days
King’s Birthday 2025
You can once again turn the King’s Birthday public holiday (Monday, June 9) into a four-day weekend by taking just one day of leave on Friday, June 6 or Tuesday, June 10. But we suggest going all out and taking four days of annual leave from Tuesday, June 10 to Friday, June 13 for an epic nine-day holiday.
Days off: Nine days (June 7-15)
Leave used: Four days
AFL Grand Final
Whether you're a footy fan or not, you've gotta be glad that we get a cheeky extra public holiday in September thanks to the AFL. It makes for a nice long weekend, which you could extend by taking the four days before off for a cruisy week-long holiday. It's not confirmed when exactly this public holiday will be yet, because it depends on the match schedule. But it's pretty safe to assume that it'll fall on the last Friday of that month, which will be September 26.
Days off: Seven days (September 22-28)
Leave used: Four days
Melbourne Cup Day
In 2025, this public holiday falls on Tuesday, November 4. The obvious move here, as many Victorians do, is to take the Monday off for a nice four days off. But you could always go all out and take the rest of the week off, too, using four days of annual leave to get a lovely nine days of break. Go on, you deserve it.
Days off: Nine days (November 1-9)
Leave used: Four days
Christmas 2025 and New Year 2026
For the planners among us, we’ve also got hacks for the 2025/26 festive period. With Christmas Day on Thursday and Boxing Day on Friday, you only need to take three days of leave to be rewarded with a much longer (11-day) break from Thursday, December 25 to Sunday, January 4.
Days off: 11-12 days (December 25 - January 4)
Leave taken: Three days
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