Spread holidays through year or mainly during winter?

[tagae]

We have enough leave to take one week off every 3 months. Is it better to spread holidays out so a week away every 12 weeks, or is it better to take a holiday say every 8-9 weeks during the winter months when it’s dark and depressing in London.

That depends entirely on your definition of "better", and perhaps also a little bit on where you're planning to go and your budget (money and time) for getting there.

That said, separate from the personal taste aspect, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference between 4 one-week holidays and 6 five-day ones. As I was reading the OP I thought you were going to ask about the difference between 4 one-week holidays and 1 four-week one, which feels a lot more substantial.

But either way, only you can really tell. I guess it depends on how bad you find the gloom of winter and/or the daily grind. From an outsider's perspective it's hard to tell whether your post is driven by wanderlust or ennui. 🙏

I find it’s better to ensure you have regular breaks from work.

Its much better to have something to look forward to every three months that trying to do a huge period with no break.

I tend to do a week in feb/early march (most depressing time of year), something in may/ June, one other summer week, and then an October break. I also usually end up having a week off at Christmas .

Use Bank holidays to maximise your leave as you only need 4 days to make a week. Personally I used to spread my leave but avoid school holidays.

I'd take less leave in the winter.
Who wants to be off work when it's cold, dark and pissing down with rain!!!

We holiday anytime of year except any school holidays which basically means we spend the summer at home.

It's too expensive to have breaks in winter if I want to go with guaranteed nicer weather.

We are just out of school holidays here so DH and I plan early October for Italy and then March or after Easter for a long haul to the Caribbean.

Personally I like holidays spread out. Could you not do 2 week breaks?

We spread our holidays through the year, avoiding school hols. This year we'll have had a week in January, long weekend in April, week in May, long weekend early July and 10 days in early October.

Winter to go where it’s summer elsewhere, eg South Africa. Southern states in USA. I’d just go when it’s not 100 degrees and long haul, not less than 2 weeks.