Leave days
The day you leave decides more of your leave than the trip you pick.
Every other page on this site prices a trip. This one counts the days it takes off your working year. The rule is one line, and it is the only arithmetic here: a trip of seven nights keeps you away for eight calendar days, from the day you leave to the day you land back, and a day costs you leave only if it is a Monday to Friday that is not a public holiday. Applied to every start date in 2027, that rule answers a question the price never does. The same seven-night island week costs three leave days or six, depending only on which Saturday you fly.
All eighteen shapes, from the fewest leave days to the most
The nights column is the length each destination page prices. The leave column is the smallest number of annual leave days that covers a trip of that length in 2027. The window beside it is the earliest stretch that achieves it, and the two columns after that show what the same trip costs in a week that touches no public holiday, and what it costs at its worst start.
| The trip | The shape | Nights | Days away | Fewest leave days | The window that does it | An ordinary week | Most leave days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City only | 4 | 5 | 1 | Thursday 25 March to Monday 29 March | 3 | 5 |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands | 5 | 6 | 2 | Wednesday 24 March to Monday 29 March | 4 | 5 |
| Cape Town and the Winelands | City and Winelands, private | 5 | 6 | 2 | Wednesday 24 March to Monday 29 March | 4 | 5 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, three nights | 3 | 4 | 0 | Friday 26 March to Monday 29 March | 2 | 4 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands, four nights | 4 | 5 | 1 | Thursday 25 March to Monday 29 March | 3 | 5 |
| Kruger safari | Sabi Sands and the lowveld | 4 | 5 | 1 | Thursday 25 March to Monday 29 March | 3 | 5 |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, three-star | 6 | 7 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Friday 26 March | 5 | 5 |
| Garden Route drive | Self-drive, four-star | 6 | 7 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Friday 26 March | 5 | 5 |
| Garden Route drive | With a private driver-guide | 6 | 7 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Friday 26 March | 5 | 5 |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, half board | 7 | 8 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Saturday 27 March | 5 | 6 |
| Mauritius beach week | Four-star, all inclusive | 7 | 8 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Saturday 27 March | 5 | 6 |
| Mauritius beach week | Five-star, all inclusive | 7 | 8 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Saturday 27 March | 5 | 6 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, bed and breakfast | 7 | 8 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Saturday 27 March | 5 | 6 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Four-star, half board | 7 | 8 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Saturday 27 March | 5 | 6 |
| Zanzibar slow week | Five-star, half board | 7 | 8 | 3 | Saturday 20 March to Saturday 27 March | 5 | 6 |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Deira or Bur Dubai | 4 | 5 | 1 | Thursday 25 March to Monday 29 March | 3 | 5 |
| Dubai short break | Four-star, Downtown | 4 | 5 | 1 | Thursday 25 March to Monday 29 March | 3 | 5 |
| Dubai short break | Five-star, Marina or beachfront | 4 | 5 | 1 | Thursday 25 March to Monday 29 March | 3 | 5 |
An ordinary week means a start date whose span touches no public holiday at all, which is what most of the year looks like. Where that column equals the fewest column, the holiday calendar is doing nothing for that length. Where it does not, the saving comes from Easter and from the Human Rights Day Monday on 22 March, which is why every early-saving window above falls in March.
What the table says
| The finding | The figures | What it means when you book |
|---|---|---|
| The start day swings wider than the trip length does | The three-night safari runs from zero leave days to four. The four-night Cape Town and Dubai shapes run from one to five. The seven-night island weeks run from three to six. | A four-day swing on one shape is more than the difference between the shortest trip on the site and the longest. Choose the week before you choose the destination. |
| The short trip, badly timed, costs more leave than the long trip, well timed | The three-night safari at its worst start takes four leave days. The seven-night island week at its best start takes three. | Length is not the thing to trade against leave. Two nights more, on the right dates, can cost a day less at work than the safari in a bad week. |
| One shape can be taken on no leave at all | Kruger, three nights, Friday 26 to Monday 29 March 2027. Good Friday, the Saturday, Easter Sunday and Family Day fill all four days. It is the only one of the eighteen that reaches zero. | If the safari is the trip you want and leave is the constraint, that window is the whole answer. It is also inside the autumn school window, so it will be busy and it will be priced as a peak week. |
| The best windows are not equally available | The three Garden Route shapes each have seven start dates that reach three leave days. The safari has exactly one that reaches zero, and the four-night shapes have two that reach one. | A trip with many good start dates is easy to place around a work diary. A trip with one good date is a booking, not a choice. |
The seven-night week is the clearest case in the whole table. Started on Saturday 20 March 2027 it runs to Saturday 27 March and takes three leave days, the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday between the Human Rights Day Monday and Good Friday. Started on Friday 7 May it runs to Friday 14 May and takes six, because an eight-day span that begins and ends on a Friday holds only one weekend. Both are the same seven nights at the same band. Nothing about the trip changed except the day the flight leaves.
The fourteen dates the arithmetic runs on
South Africa has twelve public holidays. The Act moves a holiday that falls on a Sunday to the Monday that follows, which is how the Human Rights Day of Sunday 21 March 2027 produces a second day off on Monday 22 March. That rule also covers Christmas in 2027, where the Day of Goodwill lands on Sunday 26 December, so Monday 27 December is a public holiday. The government's published list prints thirteen dates for 2027 and leaves that Monday out.
| The date | The holiday |
|---|---|
| Friday 1 January | New Year's Day |
| Sunday 21 March | Human Rights Day |
| Monday 22 March | Human Rights Day observed |
| Friday 26 March | Good Friday |
| Monday 29 March | Family Day |
| Tuesday 27 April | Freedom Day |
| Saturday 1 May | Workers' Day |
| Wednesday 16 June | Youth Day |
| Monday 9 August | National Women's Day |
| Friday 24 September | Heritage Day |
| Thursday 16 December | Day of Reconciliation |
| Saturday 25 December | Christmas Day |
| Sunday 26 December | Day of Goodwill |
| Monday 27 December | Day of Goodwill observed (from the Act) |
Both the published list and the Act were read on 10 November 2026 at gov.za. The difference over 27 December is worth knowing if you are booking a flight home in the last week of the year: plan on the Monday being a public holiday and you cannot be caught by it. The long weekends page sets out the same two documents and the same disagreement.
What this arithmetic does not know
| The thing | Why it moves the count | What we do about it |
|---|---|---|
| The flight can move your arrival a day | The table counts calendar days from departure to return. A night flight that lands the next morning, and a return that lands after midnight, both change the day you are actually back at your desk | We count the leave again on your actual flight numbers, not on the shape. The Dubai overnight arrival is the clearest case on this site, and the getting there page names each return leg |
| Your employer's leave book is not the public one | Shift work, a rota, a plant that runs through a public holiday, or a contract that counts a Sunday differently. The Act sets the floor, your contract sets your day | Send us the days you are off work rather than the days you are away, and we will work to that |
| Your leave year does not start in January | Many South African leave cycles run from anniversary or from 1 April. A window that sits in March may belong to the previous cycle for you | The table is by date, so any cycle can be read off it. Tell us the cycle when you send the brief |
| The destination has holidays of its own | A public holiday in Mauritius, Zanzibar or Dubai closes things you may have planned to use. This table only counts South African dates, because only those cost you leave | The destination pages and the paperwork page name what closes. We check the destination calendar when the dates are firm |
If the leave is the constraint and the money is not, the nights page shows what each length is priced at. If the trip has to fit a school term rather than a leave book, the school windows page has the four 2027 windows. If the question is which single long weekend buys the most days off, read the long weekends page.
What to put in the brief
Send these six lines
- The leave days you can book, not the nights you want.
- The earliest date you could fly, and the latest you could be back.
- Whether a public holiday already sits inside that window.
- Who is travelling, and whether everyone has the same leave book.
- The trips you are choosing between, if you have a shortlist.
- Whether a school diary is involved, and whose.
What comes back, and when
The shapes that fit the leave you have, with the start date that costs the fewest days and the ones that cost more. Where a trip only works on one date, we say so plainly rather than dressing it up as availability.
The live price and the availability follow once Lizanne has confirmed them with the trade, in writing. A plan that never becomes a booking costs you nothing.
Tell us the leave you have. We will tell you which trip fits it.
Three lines are enough: the days you can take, the dates you could fly, and who is travelling.
Send the leave days on WhatsApp
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Free to the traveller.
The planning lane costs you nothing. A plan that never becomes a booking costs nothing either.
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One named human.
Lizanne van Niekerk plans it and books it. She is the person you message on the day of travel.
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Indicative until confirmed.
Every number before the booking is a planning range. The binding price is confirmed in writing.
Read what it costs for the three steps and the fee, or what a finished plan looks like. For the band and the day money on one line, see the whole trip. For what the light does to a day, see the daylight page.