Motorway service areas

[Flick of the Elbow]

Possibly the best service area now is Gloucester Services AKA Telly Tubbie Land, owned and run but the same people that run Tebay.

+1
Worth a 900 mile round trip to visit.
Only joking.

 

[postman]

My last one was Washington Services,i loved it,it had an air of nostalgia about it.Not going to say cheap and cheerful,but the Costa coffee was good and Greggs prices were better than Costa's.

 

[youngoldbloke]

Gloucester Services - first to be listed in the Good Food Guide. I hear its become a destination in it's own right.

 

[Pale Rider]

Four visits to motorway service stations for me over the festive period in the course of a 400 mile round trip to visit family.

Mostly unremarkable, although my eggy sandwich from Greggs at Scotch Corner on Christmas Eve was a mild disappointment - the bread was a bit dry.

One thing that surprised me was none of the service areas on Christmas Eve and today were very busy.

 

[Dayvo]

[QUOTE 4613057, member: 259"]Services in France are generally miles better than in the UK. Give it ten years and they'll be run by trust funds too.[/QUOTE]

Surely the metric term 'kilometres better' is more appropriate?

 

[TVC]

On my trip to Bumpkinshire over the last few days I've finally had the chance to try Gloucester Services on the M5. What an absolutely fabulous place, the lack of franchises and smell of stale chip fat was such a relief. It is fairly expensive but the quality of the food and layout were very pleasing. On our way home yesterday we picked up a couple of lamb foggys and some sausage rolls from the 'farm shop', all of which have now been consumed.

It's a shame it's an hour and a half away from me, or I would be shopping there regularly - and you should see the pattiserie section

 

[Nigeyy]

Yes but (and apologies for thread revival)....

Have you ever driven in Massachusetts? Yes there are signs for services, but they appear to be intentionally vague/misleading/disappear, etc. Sometimes it's a nightmare and a crapshoot as to whether you go left or right or the place even exists -and most times they are just for petrol stations, not real facilities (caveat: may be different for other states, seems out west they have a better system) . At first I thought they did it for some sort of sadistic pleasure but now I've realized Massachusetts road engineers are worse than useless (honestly I'd fire the lot of 'em, bloody useless and completely lack common sense). My personal favourites are the road signs that tell you which road you are on about a mile after a junction -back when you really did need the road sign. I could go on..... but again, other states are usually better.

Why don't they copy a good idea from the Americans? Over there, on approach to junctions on interstate highways, there is usually a small sign indicating what food outlets, fuel brands, and hotels are available within a couple of miles. Once off the highway, another sign will send you in the right direction and tell you the distance to whatever facility you require.
Compare that to our system, when I was driving a lorry in unfamiliar areas and sitting with a Shell or BP fuel card in my pocket. On approach to junctions you don't have a clue whether the nearest fuel station which will accept your card is a few hundred yards away, or 20 miles. Even motorway services don't tell you in advance; you need to pull into the place to find out what brand of fuel they sell.