Bilpin, NSW 2758

This is a beautiful place to live with a small village feel. Bilpin is 30 mins west from Richmond and about 45 mins from Blackheath and the upper Blue Mountains. One of its many advantages is that it borders the vast Devil's Wilderness forest and you don't have strangers knocking on your door at Halloween. Other advantages are that it's peaceful, tranquil, private and a nature lover's paradise, with plenty of space for children and animals to run around . Bilpin has a primary school and is close to about 4 other schools. It has a very small Saturday market, mostly jams, knitted tea-towels and apple pies, although the plants and flowers for sale are worth going for. There's a small convenience store that's got limited opening times and one restaurant, Bilpin Afire (formerly The Apple Bar) that serves beautiful locally-sourced food from Thurs-Sun lunch and dinner. For cheaper options there's the Archibald Hotel down the road at Kurrajong Heights and the cafes in Kurrajong village.

There's beautiful gardens in this area - most well known is Mt Tomah Botanical Garden, as well as Wildwood Garden on Powells Road with a nursery, cafe and gift shop and of course the magnificent gardens at Mt Wilson heading towards Lithgow. If you love gardening Bilpin is ideal - its soil is rich and fertile and you can just about drop anything in the ground and it will grow.

The only cons are to do with driving: the drivers around this area tend to speed and tailgate, so it's not a good place to live if you're an inexperienced or nervous driver. You need to have a good reliable car, as there's no public transport. Also the people here tend to keep to themselves, unless you're retired and have the time and inclination to join one of the local gardening or craft groups. But if you love your peace, privacy and space, Bilpin is near perfect.

Everybody in Sydney knows Bilpin for its apples. It is to the west of Windsor and during the right season, you can go there and pick fresh apples of the trees which can be purchased. There is nothing fresher than picking your own apples off the tree and it really beats buying them from over priced supermarkets. I saw a few people eating the apples whilst picking and they do taste sweeter when freshly picked. The roads leading into the Bilpin are beautiful and the road that leaves Bilpin heads towards Mt Tomah. A trip to Bilpin during Spring means all the flowers are out to accompany the beautiful apples.