I built Holiday Optimizer, a website that helps you get the most out of your limited PTO days through strategic scheduling. By intelligently placing your time off around weekends, holidays, and company breaks, you can dramatically extend your vacations without using extra days. I was able to transform 15 PTO days into 53 total days off by strategically positioning them around public holidays and company days off (like Summer Fridays and Winter Break). The tool automatically generated a balanced mix of long weekends, mini-breaks, week-long vacations, and extended getaways.

Holiday Optimizer features:

- Interactive calendar visualization to see your optimized time off at a glance

- Multiple optimization strategies based on your preference for shorter or longer breaks

- Current year planning that only suggests future dates

- Support for company-specific days off and recurring patterns (like "Summer Fridays")

- Year-by-year planning for future vacations

- Clean, responsive interface that works on any device

You can customize your optimization strategy based on personal preferences:

- Long weekends (3-4 days)

- Mini-breaks (5-6 days)

- Week-long breaks (7-9 days)

- Extended vacations (10+ days)

- Balanced distribution throughout the year

What would take hours to plan manually using a calendar now takes seconds. The tool is completely client-side, and features a responsive UI built with Next.js and React. Simply input your PTO allowance, company holidays, and preferences to see your optimized schedule instantly.

Try it out: https://holiday-optimizer.com

The code is open source at GitHub: http://github.com/waqarkalim/holiday-optimizer

I'd love your feedback on the tool! What strategies do you use to maximize your time off? I personally prefer week-long breaks (7-9 days) as they provide enough time to truly disconnect without using too many PTO days.

this is surprisingly useful for someone like me who barely use my time off

Well I just used 7 days leave to get 16 days continuous time off so I'm with ya! Like the idea of optimising it.

Of course doing the full 15->53 you suggest means you are counting weekends alot in this, which you get anyway. You can turn zero days off into 104 days off using that logic.