Mike Laycock took his young visitors on a traditional outing to the seaside.

THEY bounced on the bouncy castle, rode on the roundabout, and sought elusive holes-in-one on the crazy golf course overlooking the bay. Then they ran down to the golden sands, and splashed in the waves, before returning to the sea front for an ice-cream.

It was the climax of an afternoon at Filey for my children and two young friends who were visiting us from London.

It was a gloriously sunny day and we had wanted to show our visitors the delights of a traditional seaside resort on the Yorkshire coast.

Other resorts, such as Scarborough or Bridlington, may have brasher pleasures and brighter lights to amuse older teenagers, but Filey has a more family-friendly atmosphere that somehow dates back to another, more innocent era.

I never went there as a child in the 1960s, but I somehow suspect that it was little different to the Filey of today, right down to the donkey rides on the beach, and the opportunity to explore the rocks and pools of nearby Filey Brigg.

On the cliff top, there are the carefully-maintained public gardens.

The town centre is dominated by individual shops that look as if they have been owned by the same families for generations.

There are relatively few amusement arcades but plenty of shops selling brightly-coloured buckets, spades, inflatable dinghies and beach balls, not to mention lettered rock and ices.

There are also restaurants and take-aways selling some of the finest fish and chips you might hope to find, which you can take down to the cliff-top gardens to eat while admiring the spectacular views of the massive Filey bay.

But it was down on the seafront, at the bottom of the cliffs, that our children had the greatest fun.

The rides have recently been updated but still remain simple and unsophisticated: ideal for children aged from two to nine, not least the shiny new bouncy castle.

Down near the coble landing there are stalls selling everything from sweets and sea food to Filey's traditional waffles. There is also the opportunity at times to visit the RNLI lifeboat station.

On this occasion, we did not have time to go over to Filey Brigg, where generations of children have explored with fishing nets and found crabs and other sea creatures lurking among the rock pools.

Our day ended with a wise detour to avoid the ubiquitous traffic jams of the A64, travelling instead back to York via the Wolds, looking splendid under the setting sun and down Garrowby Hill with its magnificent views across the Vale of York. Not that the children, exhausted by an afternoon of bouncing, digging, splashing and riding, were aware of the view - they had crashed out in the back of the car.

Fact file

You can travel to Filey by car, via the A64 but I went via the A166 Bridlington road via Stamford Bridge and across country.

u You can travel via Northern Spirit train. For train information call 0345 484950.

PICTURE: Having fun in the bumper cars at Filey