Unless your road trip is a short one, you’ll need to refuel at some point during your journey. Finding a gas station is generally an easy task. What can be difficult is finding the right one. Today, we’ll look at what makes for a great road trip gas station.
What Makes a Gas Station Road Trip Worthy?
Generally, stopping for gas isn’t worth mentioning when retelling your adventure stories to friends, but it’s part of the journey.
A great pit stop can make the difference between feeling frustrated with an empty stomach or being fueled up and ready to take on the travel day.
Here are a few things we think are essential when choosing your road trip gas station stop.
Convenience
Gas stations far off of your travel route with tight entrances aren’t ideal for travelers.
On the other hand, gas stations with easy access from the interstate and plenty of room to navigate make for a fast and straightforward stop so you can quickly get back on the road.
A good road trip stop shouldn’t cause frustration.
Gas Prices
Those on a long road trip know the value of getting a reasonable price on fuel.
Often, gas stations that are easily accessible use this to their advantage and charge what we like to think of as a convenience premium.
A great road trip gas station gives you a fair price.
Customer Services
When nature calls on a road trip, you’re at the mercy of a public restroom.
The best gas stations are the ones with large, clean restrooms. This is one of the most critical customer service aspects a gas station can offer.
A few other conveniences that customers enjoy are an ATM and employees who are knowledgeable and friendly.
Food and Drink Selection
Your car isn’t the only thing that needs to fuel up. Great gas stations offer a wide variety of food and drink options.
Whether you’re looking for a quick fast-food meal or a bag of chips for the road, you want to be able to get it all in one quick stop.
Having a large selection of drinks such as fountain sodas and fresh hot coffee can make your pitstop a good one.
The 7 Best Road Trip Gas Station Brands
There are endless fantastic gas stations throughout the U.S., and while we can’t mention them all, we thought we’d give you a few of our top picks. While on your road trip, look for these great stops to power you through the rest of your miles.
#1. Kwik Trip
About: Kwik Trip has more than 700 locations throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. The stores operate under the name “Kwik Star” in Iowa and Illinois, not to be confused with another local stop, Quick Trip. In addition to fuel, they also offer both hot and cold food.
Why Travelers Love It: Customers of Kwik Trip are pleased with their clean restrooms and great food options. Overall, the employees are friendly, and customers leave feeling happy with their experience.
#2. Hy-Vee
About: Hy-Vee is a grocery store chain with more than 200 locations. Hy-Vee offers gas stations at 120 of its locations. The store operates in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
Why Travelers Love It: Those who make use of Hy-Vee gas stations enjoy the bonus of having easy access to a grocery store. When stopping for gas, you can also easily run into a full-service grocery store, giving you all of the food options you could need. Additionally, customers can participate in their reward program and get discounts on both food and fuel.
#3. Quick Trip
About: Quick Trip, also known as QT, has stores in 13 states, from Arizona to South Carolina. They offer quick grab-and-go food and a variety of beverages. Many locations even offer curbside service.
Why Travelers Love It: Return QT customers enjoy the consistent quality of their locations. They know what to expect regardless of geographical location. People love the grab-and-go food. Some customers choose them over the competition specifically for this.
# 4. Love’s
About: Love’s has more than 550 locations throughout 41 states. Love’s provides services for both personal and commercial use with its auto and professional driver lanes. It features an abundance of food and beverage options, including both hot and cold varieties.
Why Travelers Love It: Love’s are almost always in convenient locations. They’re perfect for both passenger cars and RV travelers. Those driving large RVs with diesel engines appreciate the supersized truck lanes that make refueling easy and stress-free. There are great food options inside, including chains such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, Taco Bell, and others based on location.
#5. Maverik
About: There are more than 300 Maverik locations spread out across 11 states. They offer fuel, food, and drinks at each store. Some Maverik spots offer truck lanes, and they have a fleet card for those who frequent their stores.
Why Travelers Love It: Maverik customers are quick to brag about the consistent cleanliness of the stores. They’re easy to navigate. You’ll find many in the mountainous western region. Travelers appreciate their hot food options as well.
#6. Sheetz
About: Sheetz operates more than 600 locations throughout six states. You can find Sheetz in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Some locations have truck lanes and serve as full-service truck stops. They offer food and beverage options.
Why Travelers Love It: Those who love Sheetz rave about their food options. Patrons can have food made-to-order, including breakfast sandwiches and chicken tenders. There are even tacos at some locations. You’ll find Sheetz throughout the eastern states.
#7. Rutter’s
About: There are about 80 Rutter’s locations in Pennsylvania and Maryland, primarily in Pennsylvania. They offer fuel, food, and beverage options, including hot food varieties. They have a fuel rewards program, and many locations offer diesel fuel as well.
Why Travelers Love It: Customers of Rutter’s enjoy knowing they can find their beloved stop anytime they’re in Pennsylvania. Their locations are convenient and offer predictable service. There are great food options, including made-to-order subs, which make for fast and convenient travel meals.
Fueling up while traveling shouldn’t be stressful. Finding a clean and easily accessible gas station is essential while on the go. Which gas stations do you seek out while en route to your destination? What makes it a worthwhile stop?
You may want to do a follow-up article on the best diesel fuel stations. Sometimes it is a challenge to find 5% or less biodiesel when traveling. Modern Mercedes Benz sprinter vans and camper van chassis require 5% or less biodiesel.
My understanding, and please check this out, is that truck stop stations have up to 20% biodiesel fuel. Not what we want.
Fuel stops which cater predominantly to large trucks often have higher diesel fuel prices than the pumps for smaller vehicles, due to a comercial fuel surcharge = tax. Minnesota and Illinois and Iowa mandate 20% biodiesel in the summer. This is a high enough biofuel content to void the warranty on my MBZ Sprinter diesel. MN DOT responds: don’t buy the MBZ. Travelers can plan to buy diesel in the Dakotas – enough to last until Hudson WI. All FleetFarm stations sell non-biodiesel in WI, as well as non-ethanol gasoline. All this is subject to change.
What about Buc-ee’s ? This cain of travel centers Is known for clean bathrooms (and many, many stalls), great food of all types, and way too many fueling positions.
We go out of our way for their beef jerky.
Agree on Buc-ees nust not that many of them. If you see one up ahead on your app and can make it there, do so as very pleasant experience for you and your machine.
BTW-do NOT go in there when really hungry as could get oretty expensive with all the delicious options.
You left off Buc-ees! They are starting to expand their stores to other states. They are the cleanest and have the most stalls. Also great food. And some fesh groceries also. Pretty good gas prices.
I literally clicked on comments to mention Buc’ees! I know there are not as many locations (yet) but it meets (exceeds) in all categories!!!! Seriously Buc’ees is like road trip stop heaven.
This article should mention the height of the canopies and ease of pulling up to the pumps for fueling large RVs. They are useless if someone cannot fuel up without being able to safely get to the pumps.
We travel the east coast in our Class C 28 foot RV. Our go to stations are Pilot and Flying J. The gas is always a bit less expensive than other stations and we get an additional 5 cents off per gallon with our Good Sam’s Membership. They have special pumps for RV and even have dumping stations (at a small cost) for our RV sewage. Most have good restaurants or at least carry out food, clean rest rooms. I know they have them in PA, Virginia, North and South Carolina.
Flying J and Pilot stations, along with a Camping World membership card, provide 5 cents off a gallon. Over a long trip, the savings do add up. Some stations offer:
showers which are clean along with clean towels
propane fill-up and/or swap out the 20# bottles.
Of the seven brands, New Mexico has two. Of these two, I have a desire to shower and change my clothes (and burn the old ones) when I’ve been in some Love’s. You might want to travel the entire country before purporting to know it.