It might have been the golf tee that swung it for President Obama as he looked for a summer holiday retreat — but the 28 acres on Martha’s Vineyard, the swimming pool, private beach and basketball court may just have clinched it too.

Mr Obama and the First Family are planning to spend their summer break on a $20 million retreat on the wealthy playground island off Cape Cod and even seem undeterred that the property is owned by a Republican.

The choice of such an exclusive location will inevitably be fodder for the President’s Republican critics who decried his recent “date night” to New York with his wife, Michelle — an excursion that cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars at a time of deep recession and soaring unemployment.

According to the Vineyard Gazette, the resort island’s journal of record since 1864, the Obamas have chosen Blue Heron Farm, in Chilmark, recorded as America’s most expensive small town in 2007.

The farm features a swimming pool, golf practice facilities — Mr Obama plays regularly — a basketball court, access to a private beach and a rental price tag of up to $50,000 (£30,000) a week.

No deal has yet been struck on the property, but the rental agreement being negotiated has reportedly been split into three separate leases: one to be held by the Obamas — and paid for out of their own pockets — one by the Secret Service, and a third by the White House, which will be sending a large entourage to Martha’s Vineyard to accompany the President.

The farm holds a five-bedroom white Victorian-style farmhouse and three other dwellings, including a reconstructed Pennsylvania hay barn and Vermont shed. It has ocean views, private access to a stretch of Squibnocket Beach, and a private dock with kayaks and a yacht.

Mr Obama is due to take his holiday on Martha’s Vineyard during the last week in August. Mrs Obama and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, could arrive earlier and stay with friends elsewhere on the island. Bo, the new dog, is also reportedly going.

Blue Heron Farm belongs to William and Mollie Van Devender, Republicans who bought the property for $20.35 million in 2005.

Mr Van Devender, a Mississippi timber mogul, gave the maximum financial donation allowed under election laws to John McCain in last year’s White House race, and both the Van Devenders contributed to Fred Thompson during his unsuccessful run in the Republican primary.

The Obamas are reported to be determined to pay their way — unlike the Clintons, who stayed at Martha’s Vineyard regularly during their years at the White House but who were always put up by other people and thus stayed rent-free.

The Secret Service has been hunting a suitable holiday property for the Obamas on the island since April. Early research focused on Oak Bluffs, where the family have vacationed before and have many wealthy, mostly African American, friends with summer homes, including Henry Louis Gates Jnr, the Harvard professor whose arrest after breaking into his own house led the President to say police had behaved stupidly. Yet it was decided that staying in Oak Bluffs would cause traffic jams, and that the area was too difficult to secure.

Blue Heron Farm is set back from a road, is out of Chilmark and has easy access to the airport.

The property has played host to a president before. In 1998 its previous owners, M. Anthony Fisher and his wife, welcomed Mr and Mrs Clinton and other guests to a dinner in the barn. The Fishers were killed in a plane crash in April 2003.

The Cape Cod area has been a favourite holiday destination for Democratic presidents. John F. Kennedy retreated to the family compound at Hyannisport.

All the presidents’ dens

— George W. Bush loved to escape to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for a break — he spent one sixth of his presidency there. Mr Bush took more time off from the White House than any other US president, spending 1,020 days out of the office, including 490 days at his ranch.

— In the summer of 1996, one of the lowest ebbs in Bill Clinton’s presidency, he was drawing criticism for being too elitist in choosing Martha’s Vineyard, above, with its fabulously wealthy East Coast set, as a summer holiday destination. He instructed his pollster to determine where he should go instead, and ended up that year roughing it in Wyoming.

— Richard Nixon retreated to the “Florida White House” at Key Biscayne with increasing regularity as his presidency floundered. The army built a helipad at the waterfront property and Mr Nixon retained it after resigning in 1974. The 1983 gangster film Scarface was filmed there.

— During the height of the American Civil War, Abraham Lincoln would take his family to Soldier’s Home, above, a military hospital just outside Washington. Lincoln enjoyed visiting the soldiers and spent much of his presidency there. He wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free, while visiting.

Source: Times archive

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