The great British seaside holiday is popular again. But how do you enjoy the old-fashioned entertainment while avoiding Victorian attitudes toward your children - that is, seen, not heard and definitely not cannonballing off the side of the pool near the sunbathing OAPs?

Eastbourne's Grand Hotel is one of the town's hotels best equipped to deal with young guests. It's a five-star outfit at the end of a long line of traditional hotels (net curtains, elderly patrons snoozing on the cement terraces), that rises like a great white wedding cake, just across from the seafront.

Jazz wafted from the poolside terrace as our car pulled up to the front and two staff jumped to open our doors and empty our boot.

The Grand steeps itself in the old ways: paintings on the wall, floral bedspreads, buttoned-up service. You won't think you've stumbled into a design hotel. But that's it's real charm. Eastbourne is similar to Brighton, just down the coast, with its shingle beach, old-style pier and fish and chips. But spend time here and you feel pleasantly hauled back to the old-style holiday.

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The boardwalk is clean (it has a Blue Flag award for its facilities), with tidy cafes and pristine ice cream stands. In the bandstand on the beach, a full orchestra played classic songs ("That's Entertainment") to a crowd of all ages. It has been named the sunniest place in Britain.

The hotel is formal overall yet with unstuffy with children. Young guests get welcome backpacks with a hat, disposable camera, colouring book, crayons, sunglasses and ring for the swimming pool, as well as mini dressing gowns in the rooms.

Guests can drop off children to the staffed playroom for an hour every morning and afternoon on weekends and school holidays. But the biggest draw for children is undoubtedly the heated outdoor swimming pool with a fenced-off shallow bit that gets sun late into the afternoon.

For parents, perhaps the best-conceived element of the hotel's child-friendly offerings is its children's tea, served in a medium-sized conference room off the main hall. Families sit at big round tables and are served from a buffet of hot food (fish fingers, freshly-made pizza, new potatoes), juices and tarts.

The kids can drop bits of food, ask for more ketchup and talk in shouty voices without disturbing other patrons and grown-ups get a chance to chat with other parents-in-residence, while the staff fetch drinks from the bar.

We arranged for a babysitter while we ate downstairs in the Mirabelle restaurant (there's also a more casual Garden Restaurant), but other parents opted for baby-listening. Afterwards we strolled from a side door back to the front, where we spied guests swing dancing to a live band.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to the hotel is the price tag - seaview rooms start around £200 and babysitting is £13 an hour - and in places it didn't wear its age well. A portion of the masonry on our balcony was crumbling away and our putty-coloured one-speed hairdryer seemed resuscitated from the 1970s.

Some parents might also prefer to book rooms in the back of the hotel without views, as the balconies have low walls that you wouldn't want toddlers to approach unsupervised.

Yet overall the hotel struck the right balance between family-friendly and adult-approved. We found our four-year-old quickly acclimatised to the style and feel of the hotel. We'd suggest sitting at the outside table, off the sitting room where her rollaway bed was set up, and she would remind us, "You mean, on MY balcony". Then she'd wander out to stand with her hands on the white-painted wall, looking out to sea.

Need to know

The Grand Hotel, King Edward's Parade, Eastbourne offers an executive bedroom for two adults sharing plus a child staying in their room for £215, including morning papers and English breakfast for the adults. Child's breakfast is an additional £5 and children's high tea is £7.50.

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