Building sand castles is one of the most memorable experiences you can have at the beach, and presents an excellent bonding activity for the participants, both young and old.

Here are some handy tips to make your castles in the sand spectacular.

• Assemble whatever tools you want to use before leaving home.
• Fine-grained sand works best for castles, although you may find yourself having to improvise and use what's available.
• Location, location, location! Build your castle in a spot that's far enough from the water's edge so that the waves won't knock it down, but not so far that you have sand that's too dry to hold together.
• To aid in holding your sculpture together, dig down to the water table and scoop up some of the sand.
• After you've built your basic castle structure, you can use your tools to carve windows, doors, towers, turrets and more.