Gordon Bean's holiday: Premier heads for the beach but he keeps his jacket on

But yesterday Gordon Brown looked more like Mr Bean.

The Prime Minister chose a brown jacket, blue shirt and dark trousers to begin his summer break on the south coast.

Some couldn't help comparing his style to that of the bumbling Rowan Atkinson character, last seen in the film Mr Bean's Holiday released this year (even though Mr Bean went one step further on his vacation and wore a tie).

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Mr Brown, however, could be forgiven his somewhat businesslike attire - he was combing the start of his bucket-and-spade holiday in Dorset with an official visit.

The Prime Minister, eager to display his green credentials, travelled by train with Olympics supremo Lord Coe to visit the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.

Mr Brown, his wife Sarah and their young sons John and Fraser will spend the first week of their holiday mucking in at a friend's cottage.

The family are then expected to move north to spend the rest of their break at their Scottish home in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

It is a far cry from the holidays favoured by Mr Brown's predecessor Tony Blair - he liked more exotic breaks, preferably free ones in the Caribbean or Italian villas of the rich and famous.

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As Chancellor, Mr Brown spent most of his summer holidays in Cape Cod in the U.S. But since becoming a father he has taken most of his breaks in the UK.

Despite the recent bad weather, he said yesterday that Britain was the best place to have a holiday.

"I have been holidaying in parts of Britain for the past four years and this is the best place in the world to be," he said.

"Look at the weather and look at the enthusiasm of the people here.

"Not only is it the best place in the world to have a holiday, in 2012 it will send a signal to the world that we are a great sporting nation."

Mr Brown chatted to members of the public and stopped to sign autographs.

He added: "I wanted to see the preparations for the Olympics myself. It is a fantastic sight and I want to congratulate everyone for what they have been doing."

The Blairs meanwhile are once again holidaying at the £3 million villa of Sir Cliff Richard on Barbados in the Caribbean. The family stayed there several times when Mr Blair was Prime Minister, and also at the Tuscan palazzo of an Italian prince.

Mr Blair and his family did once manage to slot in a holiday to Cornwall in 2001, in the wake of the foot-and-mouth outbreak. But it rained for most of the week.

This summer Tory leader David Cameron will rub shoulders with ordinary families when he takes his wife and children on a cross-Channel ferry to Brittany.