England & Wales · 2026
Bridge days 2026 in England & Wales
Bridge days are workdays squeezed between bank holidays and weekends. Take those few days as PTO and short gaps become long consecutive breaks. Based on the 8 bank holidays in England & Wales in 2026, here are the 6 best opportunities.
21
PTO days
51
days off
Taking every bridge day below turns 21 PTO days into 51 consecutive days off across the year.
Jan 1 – Jan 4, 2026
1 PTO day → 4 days off
Built around New Year’s Day (Thu, Jan 1).
Take PTO on: Fri, Jan 2
Mar 28 – Apr 6, 2026
4 PTO days → 10 days off
Built around Good Friday (Fri, Apr 3) and Easter Monday (Mon, Apr 6).
Take PTO on: Mon, Mar 30Tue, Mar 31Wed, Apr 1Thu, Apr 2
May 2 – May 10, 2026
4 PTO days → 9 days off
Built around Early May bank holiday (Mon, May 4).
Take PTO on: Tue, May 5Wed, May 6Thu, May 7Fri, May 8
May 23 – May 31, 2026
4 PTO days → 9 days off
Built around Spring bank holiday (Mon, May 25).
Take PTO on: Tue, May 26Wed, May 27Thu, May 28Fri, May 29
Aug 29 – Sep 6, 2026
4 PTO days → 9 days off
Built around Summer bank holiday (Mon, Aug 31).
Take PTO on: Tue, Sep 1Wed, Sep 2Thu, Sep 3Fri, Sep 4
Dec 19 – Dec 28, 2026
4 PTO days → 10 days off
Built around Christmas Day (Fri, Dec 25) and Boxing Day (Mon, Dec 28).
Take PTO on: Mon, Dec 21Tue, Dec 22Wed, Dec 23Thu, Dec 24
Want a plan built around your PTO budget?
The free optimizer combines these bridge days with your available PTO, block days, and on-call periods — and lets you compare six planning strategies.
Optimize My 2026 PTO