The Sunday Times has named Filey as ‘one of the six seaside towns everyone’s going to be talking about this summer’.

After two ‘pandemic-fuelled staycation summers’ the Sunday Times believes that many resorts have rediscovered their joie de vivre and have become ‘magnets for creative, outdoorsy and resourceful types who have found that they really do like to be beside the seaside’.

Filey is praised for  ‘its laid-back atmosphere and lengthy sweep of golden sands … no rinky-dink seaside nonsense here; instead, you’ve back-to-basic pleasures in pony rides and sandcastles, deckchair snoozing and by-the-week beach-hut hires’.

The other resorts in the six to watch are: Bournemouth, Fistral, Harwich, Tynemouth, and Worthing. It’s an entertaining read, with Harwich being described as having a ‘Captain Pugwash’ feel, Tynemouth is apparently known as the “Hawaii of the north” and Worthing has transformed itself from “Costa Geriatrica” to “Hip Worthing”.

Filey’s description does raise a few eyebrows. In particular a claim that the town has ‘burgeoning boutique hotels mix with artisan cafés and craft ale pubs’. We do have all those elements, but largely in the singular. It is a bit embarrassing that the recommenced hotel, The Downcliffe, has closed.

But, as the Sunday Times points out it is Mother Nature that ‘steals the show here’. The Brigg and the rock pools are rightly trumpeted. In that regard we have no peers. That, allied to a promised boutique hotel and restaurant on Rutland Street and the very exciting news of the imminent opening of a gin distillery, then perhaps the town can stand tall among the six that ‘everyone’ will be talking about this summer?

Filey Brigg