He was in fine company. The Reagans are there, Margaret Thatcher is thereand so is Neil Jordan, director of the brilliant and disturbing film TheCrying Game, which combines transexuality and terrorism in a fashionunlikely to recommend it to the former PM. But it isn't only world leaderswho feel obliged to make a statement with their holidays. Now most heavyhitters on the media circuit have PR on their minds when they head for thecheck-in.

Picture it: you're stressed, you're famous, you earn a crust from pumpingout agenda-setting opinions and you have two weeks off to spruce up youract. Where do you go? If you're Tony Blair it's Euro-friendly Toulouse andTuscany. If you're Gordon Brown it's the puritan-starched coastline of CapeCod. And if you're Margaret Beckett it's a case of knuckling down to drag acaravan around France.

Campsite or Ritz-Carlton, the most intriguing choice for public figures onvacation is whether to head for Europe or America. As Britain stands as anation dithering over whether to hitch its identity to the US or to Europe,where its political and cultural leaders choose to go on holiday istelling.

Peter Mandelson is in San Francisco this summer, combining the bohemianattractions of a liberal city with the assiduousness and stringency of afascistic service culture. William Hague, meanwhile, is in the rough terrainof Arizona enduring some kind of peak-capped adventure holiday which may bea throwback to his Yorkshire childhood or just a desire to look rugged. JonSnow, the Channel 4 newsreader, is also there in Cape Cod and colleagues saythat he meets up with Gordon Brown for the occasional game of tennis.

Theirs is one of the more likely media figure crossovers. Among others areKate Moss and Tony Blair juxtaposing in Tuscany; the more mind-bogglingRobbie Williams, Robert Kilroy Silk and James Boyle, controller of Radio 4in Spain.

Martha's Vineyard, however, consistently outperforms all other resorts thisyear as the magnate's magnet. As well as the conflation of world leaders,Doris Saatchi rubs shoulders there with Spike Lee and Carolyn BessetteKennedy, testifying to the island's increasingly funky image.

Sarah Miller, editor of Conde Nast Traveller who vacationed at the Vineyardlast year, explains its attraction. "It's preppy, its WASPy, it's really awarmer version of Hampstead on Sea, but with great shell fish. But it's alsofunky, very casual and low key and there isn't a whiff of Butlins aboutit."

In keeping with old cultural stereotypes, however, the implication remainsthat while the fashionable go to America, the tasteful go to Europe.

And the stylish go to Jamaica. The line-up of Jamaican vacationers testifiesto that. The Round Hill resort is the most vogueish and exclusive. Yoko Ono,Naomi Campbell, Marianne Faithfull, Pierce Brosnan have all holidayed therethis year. Ralph Lauren has a permanent place on the island.

This is the ultra-ostentatious end of the market, but there is much to besaid for staying closer to home. Of the short-haul holidays, Ireland is themost favoured destination of Britain's VIPs. Clare Short, Jack Cunninghamand Jeremy Paxman are all holidaying there. West Cork is the chosen spot foran eclectic line up: TV chef Keith Floyd, actor Jeremy Irons, pop starSinead O'Connor, former Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan. All benefitfrom the country's lush literary landscape which rubs off on its holidaymakers as: I'm moody, I'm complex, my favourite poet isn't Kipling.