Yup and with there usually being 8 bank holidays in a year, that's where the extra 8 comes from.

We also have public holidays (We call them all Bank Holidays for historical reasons, but it's things like Christmas, Easter and a couple of others), there's usually 8 in a year and that's on top of your 20 days.

Employers can make you work a bank holiday, you just get another day off instead. So really it's 28 days holiday per year, with 8 of them being the public ones that you may or may not have to work.

My employer gives us 30 + the Bank Holidays, then we got took over by an American firm which ironically introduced unlimited PTO.

It's actually not great compared to a lot of other countries in Europe.

Yes that's a thing here in the US

I have no idea, I assume so given it's using the word "vacation" which is predominantly an American term that they do and that the very concept is just less popular since they typically get much fewer "vacation" days, they probably try to make the most of their time off.

I have no clue though, I'm just making shit up at this point.

Yep. Around here we like to get a hotel room on the beach and stay there a few days. Maybe go a little ways down the coast to a different town.