The places locals keep naming.
I’m Roxane, a Central Coast mum. I started this guide because I was always asking friends where to go, then watching their lovely recommendations disappear in Facebook feeds. Now I’m bringing those local tips together in one place, to help you find a family day out, somewhere lovely to visit or a local business you’ll feel good about choosing. There’s also a directory of local businesses, so you can discover more about the people and places that make the Coast special.
Tell us who to addThe first categories
Who's behind this?
Hi, I'm Roxane Pinault, a mum and Central Coast local. I started Best on the Central Coast because I wanted to do something useful for the community: make it easier to find the businesses people here recommend.
Good recommendations get shared in local groups every day, then disappear down the feed. This is my way of keeping them somewhere we can all find them, and helping local businesses get recognised for the work they do.
I work in SEO and AI visibility, and I'm building this site around work and family life. It's just me behind the scenes, checking suggestions and growing the list a little at a time.
Meet me on LinkedIn ↗Not another directory.
A record of who the Coast actually recommends.
Most local sites ask you to take their word for it. Here, every entry shows how it got here, and the rules for getting on the list are published for anyone to check.
Businesses sign up or pay to appear.
You're here because locals named you. Nobody can buy a position on the list.
"Recommended" labels with no evidence behind them.
The count is on show. Every community entry carries its tally, so you can see how often locals named it.
Paid placements blended in with everything else.
Paid is labelled Sponsored, in full, every time. It never touches the tally or anyone's position.
Facebook threads that vanish in a few days, and listings nobody checks.
Kept, and kept current. Only mentions from the last 24 months count, and every business is checked as still trading.
Rules for getting listed kept behind the scenes.
The method is public. What moves the tally, what never does, and how entries are checked.
How a name ends up here
No submissions from businesses count on their own. The list is built from what the Coast tells each other.
Locals recommend
Every week someone asks a Coast Facebook group for the best trades, cafes or services, and the thread fills with names.
We log it
We track who gets named, how often, and what people praise them for, and we check each one is still trading before it's published.
It becomes a page
The tally becomes a permanent, searchable entry on its category page, linking through to a page of its own, so the recommendation doesn't disappear in three days like the thread did.
Every entry says how it got here
A badge on every listing shows the mechanism, not just the outcome.
Community tally, shown with the count. Can't be bought. Comes with a page of your own, linked from the category hub.
We've been, we rate it, in our own words. We pay our own way.
Paid placement, spelled out in full. It never moves the tally. Adds a link to your own website and your phone number to your page.
Tell us who we've missed.
This list is built from what locals name in Coast groups, so the way on is to be recommended. We check every suggestion before it goes anywhere near a page.
Before you ask
The same questions come up whether you're a local checking a name or a business wondering how you'd get on here.
How do you know a recommendation is genuine and current?
Every name is checked against the actual Coast Facebook group threads, or a recommendation from someone whose judgement we trust, before it goes on a page. We then confirm the business is still trading by checking its Google Business Profile, website and socials, and we call or visit if anything is unclear. Only mentions from the last 24 months count toward the tally, so the list reflects who locals are naming now.
How can I tell which entries are paid and which are named by locals?
Every listing carries a badge. "Named in local groups" is the community tally, shown with the count. "My pick" means we went ourselves and paid our own way. "Sponsored" means the business paid for a page, and it's labelled that way in full, every time. Paying never moves the tally or anyone's position. See what each badge means →
How quickly do new recommendations appear, and how often is the list updated?
It's a small website run by only one person, so as much as I want to be helpful, I'm a one-woman show who just wants to help the community. The list is updated as often as the groups keep talking, not on a fixed schedule. A new name joins the tally once it checks out, and gets a page of its own when the mentions justify it. There's no set number of mentions and no guaranteed timeline: it depends on how often, and how specifically, locals praise the business.
Can my business be added without paying? What do you need?
Yes. Getting listed is free, and it depends on one thing: locals naming you. Anyone can suggest a business, including their own, but a suggestion on its own isn't enough. We look for the business in the actual group threads, or weigh it against a recommendation we already trust. If the mentions are there, it's added. If they aren't yet, it isn't. A Sponsored page is the paid route, and it's marked as paid. Suggest a business →
What happens if a business closes, moves or changes what it offers?
If a business closes, we take its listing down once we've confirmed it. If it moves or changes its services, we update the listing. Tell us when something has changed and we'll check it before updating anything. Accuracy depends on locals and businesses flagging what's out of date.
Can a business ask to be removed?
Yes. Being named for free doesn't mean being stuck here. If a business owner wants their listing taken down, they ask and we take it down.
Which parts of the Central Coast does this cover?
Anywhere covered by the Coast Facebook groups we track. As the categories grow, we'll break coverage down by area rather than treat the whole Coast as one list.
