HOLYROOD broke up almost a month ago, recess at Westminster arrived on Tuesday. For the top MPs and MSPs, is this their chance to jet off and forget all about politics for a few weeks? Well, not quite.

For First Ministers, Prime Ministers and potential usurpers, the summer holiday was politicised long ago. Less a cause for celebration but rather a minefield to be negotiated with caution.

Dare they abandon the UK in favour of sunnier surroundings abroad? That is a path many choose to avoid. Any hint of a crisis at home and there will be high-profile demands to cut the trip short for the good of the country. Then there are the paps. Few politicians look great in their swimwear, and even spouses can find themselves in the glare of the media. Pictures of a toned Samantha Cameron were splashed across the newspapers after she was snapped in a bikini in Ibiza earlier this year.

A staycation then is often seen as the safest bet, not least because it allows politicians to claim they are promoting the native tourist industry. For some, this is a natural choice. Harold Wilson, the ex-Labour PM, famously visited the Scilly Isles every year. He was even buried there following his death in 1995.

When Alex Salmond was First Minister, he would take a few days in the Highlands and head for the nearest golf course. Colonsay, in the Inner Hebrides, is the ex-SNP leader's favourite place, although he once surprised his advisors by escaping - only for a couple of days - to Italy.

Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is known to embrace Siberian trips as a way of enhancing his macho image. He was famously pictured riding a horse shirtless and on another break, boasted of landing a 46-pound pike.

But for others, a domestic holiday does not come naturally, or even guarantee positive headlines. Gordon Brown never had much luck. The year after he spent a full four hours on holiday before returning to London to deal with the foot and mouth crisis, he opted for a 'bucket and spade' break in Norfolk and Suffolk in 2008. Within a year, it was revealed that the holiday had been a PR stunt, along with the claim that he had "hated every minute" of a sojourn designed to convince voters he was in touch with middle England.

Then there was Tony Blair, who developed a reputation for freeloading on extravagant foreign breaks. So in 2001, Tony and Cherie arrived in Cornwall, a favourite of Margaret Thatcher. The location was predictably rainy, but some locals were unimpressed by the Mexican suntans remaining from a more exotic getaway.

David Cameron, meanwhile, often mocked for his choice of holiday clothing, saw his own regular trips to Cornwall cut short in 2011 and 2013 after he found himself unable to keep in touch with London due to poor mobile phone coverage. He might have wished he'd returned slightly earlier on the second abortive trip, before the flabby PM was pictured topless after struggling into his shorts while using a Mickey Mouse towel to preserve his modesty.

This year, even the UK Labour leadership race has been hit by holiday politics. While Yvette Cooper is going camping in America and Andy Burnham will fly out to Europe, shock frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn will attempt to steal a march on his rivals. "Jeremy is planning to spend the summer recess on the campaign trail," a spokesman said.

Of course, there are no shortage of work-related foreign visits for top politicians. Nicola Sturgeon went on a high-profile tour of the United States last month, and is off to China this weekend. Fiona Hyslop, the culture secretary, recently toured Japan, Humza Yousaf found himself in Ireland and Belgium as John Swinney set off for Milan.

Work and no play though is the approach adopted, with politicians acutely aware that their actions abroad are closely scrutinised for any hint of taxpayer-funded frivolity. The First Minister revealed that she had as little as three hours sleep a night on her recent tour of the US. An advisor who accompanied Ms Sturgeon on a recent trip to Brussels said there was not even time for a solitary Belgian beer, before getting back on a flight to Edinburgh.

Ms Sturgeon, for her part, favours holidays in Portugal. It is not known what her plans are this year, with an advisor saying she would probably "take a few days" at some point but is unaware of any definite plans.

After a general election campaign that catapulted her onto the A-list of UK power brokers, a lack of enthusiasm for a summer holiday would be understandable. Perhaps she just can't be bothered with the politics of it all.