I asked readers what were the worst highway rest stops in the world earlier this week. The responses surprised me in more ways than one. Some comments ranged from disappointing to outright disgusting, but I was also bewildered to see a prevalent rest stop chain come up multiple times. Without further ado, here are the worst highway rest stops in the world:
Unpopular opinion: Buc-ee’s
Would you like to wait in 1/2 mile of traffic just to enter the parking lot? Check!
Would you like to navigate a 20 acre parking lot that features massive RVs, trailers of all kinds, suicidal pedestrians and slack-jawed tourists ignoring all of it? Check!
Have you ever wondered what its like to have so many gas pumps, they have their own traffic patterns? Wonder no more! If that stresses you out, don’t worry - nobody follows the patterns anyway!
Have you ever dreamed of circling said pumps for hours on end, waiting for the chance to use one? Dream no more!
Are you on the highway, when suddenly you wish you could join a mosh pit? Just walk on over to the restrooms for the ride of a lifetime!
Stressed about spending a week with your annoying in-laws at the beach, and really want your anxiety cranked up to 11? Walk through our store and get a nice dose of sensory overload and claustrophobia!
Wishing you could buy $100 worth of sandwiches and have absolutely nowhere to sit? Buc-ee’s is the place for YOU!
(okay, their bathrooms ARE the best and their food is decent)
Submitted by: Stephen
Being completely honest, I didn’t expect Buc-ee’s to catch flack during this Question of the Day.
I tend to agree, whenever I see a Buc-ee’s and need to make a stop, I go to the gas station across the street (almost always an option). At some point the place stops being a “convenience” store and starts becoming a Wal-Mart.
Plus side with stopping there, you get your exercise. Sitting in the car all day, you’ll get your steps in with the 5 minute walk to the restrooms. Want to get get in a HIT workout, try driving or walking through contested parking lots and lanes. Sure to get your heart up dodging the cars/people.
Individually each item Buc-ee’s offers is top notch (for the category), but at some point more isn’t just insane.
Submitted by: Schlucked
The Thomas Edison rest stop on the NJ Turnpike. When you’re reliving the nightmare of the NJT, this is it. Trucks and cars alike parked anywhere they can find a spot.
Don’t even think about eating the food there.
It has a Starbucks, but doesn’t mean a thing. I witnessed a customer scream at a Starbucks employee for getting his order wrong. Seemed like the yelling lasted forever.
Submitted by: romans6_23
New Jersey stopped funding rest stops 15-20 years ago. What remains are only “truck rest areas”. These contain portajohns in front of a derelict rest facility. County or state vehicles use the car park as a storage lot. Only the truck lanes are open for parking. They still fly the American and Jersey state flags, though. God bless the garden state. God bless America.
Submitted by: Mr. Pomodoro
I handful of the rest stops while driving north in CA on I-5 would definitely quality. Disgusting toilets that I would never want to sit on, sometimes no running water, and much of the time they’re closed for “service” whatever that means. All too often it’s just easier to stop at a McD’s or other place and go to the bathroom there.
Submitted by: QADude
In 1976 my grandparents took me on a road trip out west. The Essex Rest Area on I 40 West in California is my nominee...not because of the facilities but because of the sign on the door that warned that rattlesnakes might possibly be in the men’s room because it was much cooler than the outdoors. My 11-year-old logic led me to think “if they’re in there, I’ll pee out here” so I found a rattlesnake-free bush to water.
I’m sure the toilets were just fine…
Submitted by: J Hamm
There’s a public rest area between Gallup, NM and Barringer Crater, AZ on I-40 that always looked abandoned when I stopped at it. I was surprised they didn’t just give up and set out porta-potties.
It’s been 20+ years since I stopped there, but for 15 years I traveled across the country on that route many times, and it was always thus.
Submitted by: Grimmtooth
When I was a kid I begged my parents to stop here so I could pick-up a souvenir.
As an adult 40 years later, I see why my father never wanted to stop here; it’s a tourist trap full of overpriced tchotchkes and mediocre food.
The last time I stopped, maybe 20 years ago, it was nearly empty and looking a bit run down at the heels. The only thing that made the trip memorable is look of shock on my 65 year old aunt’s face when she came across a double-headed dildo as thick as her arm.
Submitted by: Earthbound Misfit I
My family made many trips up I-95 from FL to PA in the summers and winters of my youth. We stopped there exactly once. It was a trip where it was just my dad, my brother and I, and I suspect if my mom had accompanied us (I forget why she didn’t) we never would have stopped. It was bleak, even then (must have been over 30 years ago). It is a quintessential tourist trap, except it has nothing to even draw people in in the first place. There’s no world’s largest ball of yarn or anything like that, it’s just a weird Mexican-themed fireworks depot.
Submitted by: NoWaitComeBack
My worst experience is likely been fixed/demolished long ago, but likely points to the right answer for “in the world”.
In 1992, I spent 3 months in Germany. Germany had just re-united and I was able to drive to Berlin on the A 9. It wasn’t the most picturesque drive I took, but it was memorable. The road had just opened and still had giant craters in it from WW2 every now and then and a recently abandoned fortified border.
Then there was the rest stop I ended up at.
It was all concrete and really big. It was very obviously an original issue rest stop from the 1930s. There were big eagles cast into the building and some empty places where something had been blasted off the building
The bathroom was the horror show. It was a beat up tiled room. One side was sinks, the other was a row of poles. When you got to the poles, you could see that there was a pair of poles on either side of two cast iron foot shaped rises in a cast iron thing that had a hole between the poles. You were supposed to grab the poles, put a foot on each foot print thing and drop a deuce down the hole. There were no doors, walls or any other way to get privacy. And no TP either, so the poles didn’t really look clean at all.
Now, I’m sure that this rest-stop has been destroyed and replaced with a place that charges 5 euros to crap in a luxury poop palace since 1992.
HOWEVER... I would bet there are areas of Eastern Europe or Russia or the like that still have the poles and the holes.
PS, found a picture of a squat toilet. Image this.. but cast iron, rusty and public.
Submitted by: hoser68