Keele is horrible, yep.
Maidstone on the M20 seems to be gradually getting worse and worse.
Pretty much all UK ones are miserable. Much prefer the French ones; it's entirely possible there to have a good meal for a reasonable price unlike 8 quid for beans on toast in one British one.
^^this
The French ones often have a nice grassed area where you can actually have a pleasant sit down with the family.
UK service stations - Everything is super expensive and they are full of slow walkers...it's like land of the undead.
Wimpy FFS!
I used to quite like Wimpy, they did a decent beanburger [i]and [/i]a Quorn burger. Wow, choice!
I went to one in, uh, Warrington I think, a few years ago and was startled to find they gave me actual metal cutlery. Luxury!
Other than Tebay, it's hard to rank them to be honest, so my nomination for worst services would be all of them (apart from Tebay).
Magor is a bit Grimm but at least it's independent. The horrible services are on the A1. Tried Scotch corner or many of the others. Horrible. Also the service near Kinross north of the Forth Road bridge on the M90 are terrible.
Tebay is evil! The people who run it are the spawn of satan! We were in there on Friday. They made me have a huge cooked breakfast. Wafting their delicious aromas at me as I walked in. Then I'm forced to go and stock up on ldelicious cheeses and sausages, and lovely lovely pies mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... piiiiiiiiiiiies..........
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The French ones often have a nice grassed area where [s]you can actually have a pleasant sit down with the family[/s] people unload their dogs.
Still nice, despite the shit.
nice grassed area
Perfect for taking the dog for a dump (France or UK).
They're all horrid which is why I only use them for a piss, easy-tea from M&S Food if I'm heading home late or a power-nap in the back corner of the car park. Jeezus if they were nice to stop at I'd never get to where I was going.
And why people will stand in a mile-long queue at a Costa to order a double-skinny-soy latte frappa-wotsit and fattie-cake for £7.85 is beyond me.
The M5 seems to have a fair number of god-awful services. I stopped at Frankley yesterday, dear God what a shithole.
There used to be a really dreadful one somewhere down near the Eastnor junction but I think that's been tidied up a bit now.
I don't like Tebay, can't see why everyone raves about it. It's astronomically expensive, always overcrowded and the food really isn't anything to write home about.
Bolton Services on the M61 used to be horrendous but they bulldozed the lot a couple of years ago and there's now a really smart Euro Garages one there with a Subway and a Starbucks.
A +1 for Norton Canes on the M6 Toll, it's a definite advantage to using that road.
how have we got this far into the thread without a mention of Sandbach on the M6?
M74 Northbound and Southbound.
Northbound is particularly horrible when the food bit is shut. The only available toilets are behind the filling station and I refuse to use them. Mrs Deveron was desparate once, I had to explain to her why there were 4" holes drilled in the cubicle walls at about 3 ft from the floor! And why there were people hanging about at midnight.
My favourite is Stirling. Last stop before home and the mountains!
Tibshelf M1
Frankley M5
Birch east-bound M62
Any services on the M5 from Bristol west-bound on a summer weekend
Aust services on the M48 just before the old Severn bridge they were hideous. The gypsy encampment that surrounded them didn't help to provide a relaxing environment.
how have we got this far into the thread without a mention of Sandbach on the M6?
dunno. almost all UK motorway services are monumentally shyte compared to those on mainland Europe, but Sandbach has to be one of the worst I've ever had the pleasure of using. When I go for a pee, i don't expect to have to stand in the communal waste of others.
Lymm services on the m6/m56 is turd, some sort of open plan outside courtyard affair that hums as the toilets belch noxious truck driver stenches out into the middle of it. Wooley edge on the m1 is also dog dirt, needs a good revamping. Saying that if im driving somehwere i don't tend to stop unless its to evacuate my bowels/ bladder, just wanna get to my destination wi out arsing around on the way.
and some that you wouldn't take a dead cat to.
I'm curious - do you often take a dead cat with you on car journeys?
how have we got this far into the thread without a mention of Sandbach on the M6?
Exactly my thoughts. How it still exists when Knutsford (which is OKish) is just up the road defeats me.
Much prefer the French ones; it's entirely possible there to have a good meal for a reasonable price unlike 8 quid for beans on toast in one British one
Why do you think that is?
Factor in the tolls and it doesn't look such good value for money...
Ones in Germany are good as well, toilets are spotless.
Denmark and Sweden are pretty pants but the ones in Finland were ok.
One of my favourites is Norton Canes on the M6 Toll. Except that it's bloody freezing in winter.
Norton Canes is ok in the sense that its quite new and freshly built, and bright and airy.... but what perplexes me is why its so busy. The whole point of the toll road is you're paying a fee to bypass the congestion and get past birmingham quicker.
Why pay that fee....... and then stop for half an hour?
I ask that as someone who's stopped there pretty much every time I've used the Toll. The thing is, I'm an idiot and usually if I'm travelling that way I'm being paid to do it so I'm not too hung up on the economy of the trip. I've sometimes used it as a handy rendezvous for passing aging relatives to other family members as its somewhere where both parties can turn back in the opposite direction. But why does everyone else stop there? Why was it even built there? You'd think the idea of building it on the toll would just be rejected as economic suicide. And yet the opposite is true, the place is mobbed.
The Westmorland/Tebay ones are good but I'm struggling to think of any others that are decent.
Weatherby services is actually pretty OK
How it still exists when Knutsford (which is OKish) is just up the road defeats me.
The services to the north and south of Tebay are funny. I missed the tebay exit one stormy night and stopped at the next one south. Just me and two members of staff in the [b]whole[/b] place
Aust services on the M48 just before the old Severn bridge they were hideous. The gypsy encampment that surrounded them didn't help to provide a relaxing environment.
I won't hear a word against them: I once left a spare tyre with the cashier in Smith's, to be picked up by a cycling buddy later that day. Class.
As for French motorway services, why? Much better to take a picnic and stop at one of the Aires.
Ones in Germany are good as well, toilets are spotless.
You have to pay for the loos though. Never thought the food was up to much however the ubiquitous kids' play areas are a godsend.
I did think Switzerland were the best until I got back on the road, re-did some mental arithmetic and worked out I'd spent about £35 on some sandwiches and drinks.
I once spent 24 hrs at london gateway services at the bottom of the M1 - what a dump. It's so close to London that no one stops there either going towards London or out of it. At the time it had no facilities bar a burger king which gets pretty tiresome for breakfast lunch and dinner
It's so close to London that no one stops there either going towards London or out of it.
No, I've used it a fair bit, usually forced on me by a delay on the motorway going into London or a delay in London coming out.
Stuck in London traffic for 90 minutes when you expected your journey to the M1 to take 20 minutes means it's ideally placed for a break when you're bursting for the loo or need a coffee.
Saying about good/bad services though, I'll rarely spend more than about 15 minutes in a services unless I need to sleep for 30 minutes to break up a long journey (or when coming back from a 24hr race!)
Is that the one that looks like a prison with an undercover car park?Had the misfortune to visit the Bridgwater services on the M5 yesterday
Edit: yes it is
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Whatadump
[i]think my favourite is on the M3[/i]
I can't believe someone has a 'favourite' Mway services!
& I'm just as sad for reading this thread!
Ones in Germany are good as well, toilets are spotless.
You have to pay for the loos though
but you can cash in the voucher afterwards and get almost all of it refunded
€0.20 for a slash in a gents you could eat your dinner in is acceptable imho.
how have we got this far into the thread without a mention of Sandbach on the M6?
That was where I ordered a beanburger without cheese from Burger King and was told "I'm sorry, we've run out of cheese."
Lymm services on the m6/m56
I don't know about the M56, but the Lymm services at J20 of the M6 claims to be a "truck stop" rather than a services. It's a weird little place but in its defence, you don't have to pay the service station premium prices in the shop.
They are all fairly guff to be honest.. I spend most of my week touring the highways and byways in my rig so have visited most of them at some point.. The only one I'd happily stop at overnight is Tebay. The rest are overpriced cesspits!
People seem to loose the ability to go to the toilet like human beings in service stations... Don't even get me started on the showers! I would rather go without (and have done) for a few days than shower In some of them!
Particular low lights are:
Charnock Richard
Rugby
Bothwell
Hamilton
Bolton
Burton in Kendal
Birch
Leeming Bar
Most of the ones on the M6
Everything on the M25..
However the accolade for worst service ever goes to Stracathro. Must be visited just for the experience!
Dry boke just thinking about it!
I don't go that far South of Liverpool much now tho so there could be some improvements.
There are some good truck stops tho,
Wolverhampton
Ecclefechan
Dandy's in Flint
Lets eat cafe on A49
Lockerbie
And J38 on M6.
Had dinner at Tebay SBound last night - stellar by service station standards and there's a nice (small) play area for kids. Tebay NBound is pretty ordinary IMO.
That stop up the A9 is nice, past Dalwhinnie. Although it may just be connected with going on great riding / walking holidays that I'm always in a good mood whenever I'm there.
Damn, forgot about Charnock Richard. Brain must have erased that particular experience.
I don't mind Leeming Bar. It's just a McDonalds attached to a weird gift shop isn't it? With what used to be the most dangerous exit from a services in the UK.
€0.20 for a slash in a gents you could eat your dinner in is acceptable imho.
It wasn't a complaint, it was more like part justification for why they are so good. Most of the ones in Bavaria seemed to be run by some external company it seemed.
most of the (spotless) German autobahn services have loos maintained by Sanifair.
All in German and English, but people still get confused by the token/voucher 😉
Yeah I must've lost ooh... 5€ not redeeming those things.
You mean Skiach services Garry?
Ballinluig on the A9 is good aswell.. Although I think the waiting staff may carry knifes incase you upset them. I always feel like I'm troubling them in there..
I reckon the M&S, Greggs and McD's In some has saved them. I just refuse to stop at some. I went go have a shower in Dartford (I think) and saw a wee jobbee floating in the undrained water.. I mean.. Really!
Who craps in the shower??? Swines charged me £28 to park overnight aswell! Never again!
I save them up. "Free" cake+coffee every so often.
Yep you do see people trying to post their coffee voucher back in the turnstile to exit 😕 Just walk thru! It even says it in 2 languages. Then spend it.
I guess the idea is you pay €0.70 for a pee, cash in the €0.50 voucher for a coffee, then you'll need to stop an hour down the road for another pee. Which is why I save them up until I have 5-6 vouchers to use in 1 go.
Spent a great week in Finland skiing over half term with the wife and kids, made the mistake of stopping off on the way home late Sunday night at some services north of Manchester. It was grim, litter, bad mannered foul mouthed people and shite food. Been thinking about going back to Finland ever since!
There is a fairly horrible one on the way south into London from the M1, not sure of the name.
The M5 is full of horrible ones.
Tebay is better than the other UK ones I've been to. Can't knock it, really.
There are some good and some ropey ones on t'continent.
In France, even an aire with nothing more than a petrol station and a toilet will often sell nice sandwiches.
Many German ones seem to have a very limited food choice.
My memory of the one on the Antwerp ring road is of loads of blokes (having tail-gated, swerved and barged their way down the motorway) getting out of cars and pissing in the car park. Not discretely against a bush, in the middle of car park.
-That summed up my experiences of driving across Flanders.
Russian ones were good. Locals just turn up with chicken in a hot box and set up table by the side of the road. Superb home cooked chicken meal for little more than free - far more edible than the MacShergar's franchise cack in UK services.
There'll be a tree somewhere in the next 50 miles for a slash 😉
Think there is a move to remove the restrictions placed on the companies that run the English (if not UK) services. They're not allowed to be destinations because of the need to keep the highways non-cluttered. Bit of a change from the first ones!
Particular low lights are:
Charnock Richard
Rugby
Bothwell
Hamilton
Bolton
Burton in Kendal
Birch
Leeming Bar
Most of the ones on the M6
Everything on the M25..There are some good truck stops tho,
Wolverhampton
Ecclefechan
Dandy's in Flint
Lets eat cafe on A49
Lockerbie
And J38 on M6.
The Trucking Forcast 🙂
Yes indeed... I'm at Tebay tonight and confirm the Chilli is good, the scones are good and as always the Mini Eggs are good.. Also got 3G so I can peruse the Internet for bike related gubbins..
Intersting lesson for anyone in business! Have noticed just how many people still believe the Bolton services to be a dump. Granted they once were the Nr 1 dump in the UK but since being demolished and rebuilt they are pretty good - nice European feel to them IMHO... Just shows that spending the money is only half the battle - takes years to lose the old image.
I like Tebay - mainly because i love the pies in the deli - the 'Old Growler' is a particular favourite. I also sentimentally (though not sure why!) feel excited whenever we get to the Green Welly Stop at Tyndrum when going up to Scotland!