Aberdour Silver Sands beach, Fife

"What is that bright thing in the sky?" The children were amazed. Being Scottish, they had never seen it before. "It's the sun" I explained. "And when it shines, we go to the beach....."

Aberdour Silver Sands is one of my favourite child-friendly beaches, with great views on a clear day across to Edinburgh. It's a smallish beach so can get pretty busy on a sunny day as everyone takes advantage of the weather. Not too far to go from sand to water for paddling, swimming is harder as the water is very shallow with shifting sand banks, creating islands that you can paddle out to. Care should be exercised with the "sinking sands" even though they cause much excitement and screaming from children!

There is a handy beach front cafe (although it couldn't be less beach friendly if it tried - no beach wear, no bare feet, no using the loo unless you buy something- the rules go on and on. Surely they should just put an outside tap in for feet washing and try to smile, it would make a huge difference!) There is a public loo outside for 20p which is modern and clean if you want to steer clear of the cafe with your flip flops...

There is a bouncy castle and kiosk selling candy floss and icecream on the grass at the top of the beach, which could be seen as advantageous if you don't mind shelling out (ha ha no pun intended) but the kids came back a bit disgruntled after the bouncy castle. For £1.50 each for 10 minutes they said they weren't allowed to touch the sides, and they couldn't bounce properly as there were too many tiny people on it. Bah!

Plenty of car parking for £1.50 for a day, and an easy 2 minute walk to the beach from the car park. We took the train and it was a 10 minute walk from the station, fine on the way there, but would have been arduous on the way back lugging our beach gear and sore feet (thanks to A for our lift back!)