Brief encounter with the TIME-WARP ISLE; BRUCE ROBERTS goes back to the sixties on the Isle of Man.

THE Isle of Man may be just a hop over the water, but it's a bit like going through a time-warp - back to the easy-going days of the sixties.

Empty roads, quiet pubs, steam trains - you could kid yourself you've walked onto the Heartbeat set. There's even no National Lottery.

We landed at Ronaldsway Airport, which has a brilliant terminal. You get off the plane, walk through a door, and there's your luggage. It's all of 10 yards to the car-hire desk.

We had a 10-minute drive to Port Erin, our base for the week. The first thing you notice is the traffic. It turned up about three miles into our journey - a car going the other way.

We stayed at the Cherry Orchard hotel and apartment complex, where we had the best of both worlds - a self-catering apartment with all the amenities of a hotel. The kids could be sent off to zap each other in the games room or have a dip in the indoor pool while mum and dad flaked out in front of the telly or relaxed in the bar.

You need a car to do the island properly - it takes less than an hour to drive from top to bottom. But leave at least one day to sample the steam railway that criss-crosses the island.

This is real Brief Encounter meets Thomas the Tank stuff, and the Port Erin station was right across the road from our hotel.

The train's ideal for a quiet day out - a stroll round one of the many tiny seaside towns and a pub lunch. A word of warning, though - kids aren't allowed in pubs after 2.30pm. But the kids loved the Curraghs Wildlife Park, where you can loiter among llamas and wander through the wallabies to your heart's content.

If you're into water wheels - and who isn't? - the one at Laxey is big, red and gives superb views of the island once the kids have persuaded you to climb to the top.

If it's raining, the Story of Mann is told at various centres throughout the island. We caught it at the House of Manannan at Peel, and very atmospheric it was too - if a bit spooky for the very young.

The undoubted stars of the week, though, were the seals. After a couple of days when it was too windy to go out, we finally got our boat trip around the Calf of Man, a lump of rock off the bottom of the island.

The kids were desperate to see seals, and for a while it looked as though they'd have to settle for seagulls. Then a head was glimpsed in the water, and we thought that might be our lot.

As the boat went round a rock we were suddenly in Seal City. There were seals in the water, seals on rocks, seals hailing taxis, seals carrying shopping home...

No doubt about it, they put the seal on a great holiday.

MANX Airlines fly direct from Glasgow. Everymann Holidays offer tours for families and special interests. Car hire available at Ronaldsway Airport and Douglas Sea Terminal. For a free holiday guide, contact the Isle of Man Tourist Office, Sea Terminal Building, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM1 2RG.