KazT

Hi! I would say Bella Vista is a long commute! There are no trains to that area yet but drive you would be looking at 1hr 10 mins plus (from gosford area) I would say. We live in Saratoga which is in the central coast not far from green point actually. We moved here from the northern beaches of sydney as property is so much cheaper here and actually the area is lovely! A little quieter and more what we were used to coming from a small city in the uk! We looked at lots of areas when considering buying our home here from north west sydney, north shore, northern beaches and central coast (took us about 2 years to buy!) We have our own business in hornsby and were used to commuting 45 mins so it gave us a broad area! We bought here as it is on the brisbane water so we get a lovely view and my husband goes rowing/sup boarding weekly something he never would have done in the uk! The beaches are 10 mins away and erina fair is too... It is a small village with a few shops, playgroup, sailing club, church, cafe, thai takeaway, butcher, bakery etc there is a beautiful park on the foreshore at davistown for the kids and nice cafe and restaurant and people tell me the RSL has a great play area for the kids too. Avoca, North Avoca and Wambaral are all lovely as is terrigal on a weekday a little busy on a summer holiday weekend for me! Kincumber is nice in parts cheap property and is really up and coming i would say. There are ALOT of people living here that have relocated from sydney more than half of the people you talk too! I too have heard springfield has dodgy areas and gosford itself also. East gosford and caroling bay are nice I have heard and have been to cafe's and the art gallery there and never met any "bogans" as the sydney siders say! I went to the erina health centre with my little girl to find out about mothers groups, swimming lessons, gym tots, vaccinations etc (all things children basically) and they were soooooo helpful. Erina is nice but a little more expensive - housing is much more like us brits are used too though! My sister lives in blackwall near woy woy her area is lovely she is on a great street but she tells me that in the woy woy, ettalong, umina area it can be a bit street by street! Closer to the beaches you get the bigger and better the houses get and i guess the demagraphic changes with that. The trains are fairly good here my husband commutes on then half of the week and drives the freeway the other half and generally its not too bad for him as he just misses peek times! I hope this helps some of you. ​Karon.