We consider Chester Services to be the half-way point on our monthly journey from Caernarfon to West Yorkshire, so often stop here for refreshments or to use the toilets. The services are 24 hour, and are located near Runcorn, just past the city of Chester.
The services are quite small but have an ample car park. On the outside of the services in a seating area, and a small grassy verge with trees, separating the area from the motorway. At the entrance to the services is a dog bowl filled with water and an AA stand. Further inside, there's a Wimpy, which is closed at nighttimes, a Costa coffee bar, an ordinary cafe area and a WHSmith, which has the usual stands outside filled with books and special offers, such as camping chairs and waterproof jackets or fleece jackets. Behind these are the toilets.
The toilets are clean and there are many of them. Before entering the toilets there is a useful area containing boxes of leaflets for local attractions, and a mobile-phone charging station, which allows visitors to charge their phones, securely.
The WHSmith is quite impressive - it stocks a range of foods and drinks, magazines and newspapers, CDs, maps and books. They always seem to have a lot of special offers on too.
The Costa coffee is a bit hit and miss, though. Because it's often quiet, they tend to use the chairs to separate areas, which means going outside on the terrace is sometimes not allowed. On a few occasions the coffee has been lukewarm, and once, they had run out of ice, and a customer was given an iced latte that wasn't even cold (I overheard them complaining about it). read more
