Young family Terrigal area

Hi All

We are currently in the U.K. for a few years but lived in Aus for 9 years and will be returning (reluctantly on my part!) soon-ish. Before we left we bought a house in Terrigal but had news of family illness straight after so never had chance to live in it...we have some family there so know it's nice but I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience of living on the CC/Terrigal/Avoca area with a young family? Easy to make friends, good primary schools, easy to settle? Good experiences, bad experiences? Just trying to get prepared and get into a good mindset! Thanks in advance all :-)

Hello there

In my opinion, you couldn't have chosen a better area to move to and live, with a young family!! Honestly! We live in Avoca Beach, it's absolute paradise and the kids love it.

In a nutshell: Me - decided to uproot husband and two kids (now aged 6 and 8) and move to Australia. On a whim! For a nice change! 189 Visa's granted and reccie visit 2015. Husband had to get a job to determine where we moved to. His job is in marketing so we knew we were going to have to be near a big city. He landed a job in Sydney and flew out last September. Me and kids followed in October knowing we didn't want to live in Sydney but not knowing where also would suit us, and be commutable to Sydney. Spent a month looking around suburbs, and central coast. Found Avoca, found a house to rent and here we are! We liked Terrigal but wanted somewhere smaller as that's we were used to in West Yorkshire.

The lifestyle is great, very beach and outdoors orientated! There's loads of expats and we've been welcomed into the community with open arms, made loads of friends (so have kids). There's always loads of things on, loads of sporting clubs for kids to join, Nippers, surf lessons, cub scouts etc

If you like beaches there are some stunning ones only a short drive.

If you're used to happening night life I think you'll struggle - there's not even a bottle shop open in Avoca after 8pm, and no bars! Terrigal has the nightlife, but still fairly low key. Since we arrived we have done a lot of socialising at peoples houses, or at the surf club - adults have a drink and watch kids play on the beach, or we meet with other families and have a day at the beach with a bbq and beers.

Do you have any specific questions? I know a lot of our friends started living in Sydney and got fed up of the traffic, the prices, the number of people etc, and then 'found' the central coast.

The primary schools are generally very good in Terrigal and Avoca. I think if you travel further up the coast they can be shocking - so I've been told. I'm happy to try to answer any other questions, or feel free to pm me.

Best wishes

Becks

Hi

i lived in Woy Woy for 4 years & had moved there with a young baby. The central coast is an amazing place & great for families. I had many Aussie friends who I'd met through baby club, swimming lessons & even just chatting to mums in the park....basically friends for life! TBH any place is great, it's what you make of it I guess!