Well, let's get started shall we... The nice man, named…read moreVlad, which I assume is short for Vladimir (Not Putin.) Served us in an efficient manner and attempted to upsell the special offer on Onion Rings, to which I didn't oblige. But don't let my man Vlad fool you though, then came the real problems... Firstly, my brother's cheeseburger came in a hamburger package. Boy, discomforted is an understatement. Another great query of mine is that the salt came out of the sachet far too quick for my nimble fingers to manipulate. Overall, my meal was a tasty treat and a whopping good deal at 6 pound. But it was let down by some major flaws and lack of attention to detail. 3 stars.

Roadchef - Stafford South Services is located on the M6 southbound between J14 and J15, this can…read moreonly be accessed from the Southbound motorway (Such as when heading towards the Midlands from Manchester), as the Northbound services is around 3/4 of a mile away and operated by Moto. This is one of my favourite motorway services on the network, operated by Roadchef. Brands here include McDonald's, Costa Coffee, WHSmith and a Days Inn Hotel. The main area of the service station was clean and modern, it also stood out from other traditional motorway services due to having a pretty lake right outside with an outdoor seating area. Other than having to use the slip road off the motorway to get here, you wouldn't know this was a motorway service station. They also seem to offer much better 24/7 services than many other motorway services, the communal seating area, toilets and showers are obviously there all the time, but the McDonald's inside is 24/7, meaning you can always grab a hot bite to eat or drink before continuing with your journey. I do prefer Starbucks for coffee though, but if you're looking for a Starbucks and heading towards the Midlands, The next services along the M6, Keele does have this. 4* - A good, clean and unique motorway services which I will likely return to on my travels.

A good example of its type. First of all, it's a Moto service station; whilst all motorway service…read morestations are, in my opinion, not great places, the Moto ones tend to be slightly less bad than the others. They have an M&S Simply Food outlet, so at least you know you'll be able to get some decent food somewhere! This particular service station can get very busy, situated as it is on the junction of the M62 and the A1, so if you need somewhere quiet you might want to go elsewhere; but all in all, it's not a bad place to stop (if you can find it through the maze of motorways they've now put in around the place).

I was flabbergasted; I mean my flabber has never been so gasted. A litre of diesel was 38 pence…read moremore expensive than I'd paid just before getting on to the motorway network to go from Bath to Manchester. As we don't live here we literally never go into a motorway service station and we knew they had a reputation for over-charging customers but, my word, I wasn't prepared for this huge rip - off difference. We stopped here to grab a decent coffee (in a Pret A Manger) and to use the restroom because on two occasions we had been stopped on motorways the worst being near Birmingham where we literally turned off the car and sat for a very long time not moving at all. The entire 4 Lane motorway was at a standstill. It took us near to 6 frustrating hours to travel 180 miles or about as long as it took in Victorian times. It may have been exacerbated by the fact that the RMY has a rail strike. It seems that it's fine for Tories and their funders to asset strip the British nation for 13 years but well date any worker - train driver, nurse, teacher, doctor, actor look for a decent income for them and their families. In this last month alone the uk government borrowed £20 billion to fund the gap between income and spend so in the last financial year borrowing has been around £170 billion from a party that lies when it says it can be trusted on the economy. The only two things they can be trusted to do is rob the country blind to enrich themselves and their off shore chums and lie when they speak.

I dislike Moto Motorway Services, and a key example of my dislike for the Moto chain has to be…read moreStafford Motorway Services, located in the Stone area of Staffordshire on the M6, just 11 miles from the much better Keele services (Welcome Break). The overall service area appeared to be pretty much standard by all means, it has pretty basic brands and nothing too exciting such as a Costa and a WHSmith, the latter which you'll tend to see at virtually every motorway services regardless of whether it is operated by Moto or another company. Standards in every other department across the services including service seemed poor, and of course the presentation and taste of the food in the motorway services own branded cafe (which isn't one of the big chains), just looking at the plate it appeared to be some sort of insult. The scrambled egg looked like more of a mess than Fulham currently do in the Premier League, it looked like vomit and I even had to build up courage to take a bite (I wish I didn't put it that way), the beans also tasted cheap and slightly hard, with the bacon appearing to be chewy and highly low-quality. Stafford really shows why Moto services are the weaker motorway services in the network, with this branch, in particular, being a truly poor and depressing experience, even for Moto standards hence warranting a one-star rating.

While all Travelodge's are fairly similar when it comes to amenities and service, this one isn't…read morenecessarily an exception to that rule. However, the staff were very friendly and helpful. The hotel is located in the back of a rest stop, and is next to a mixed Burger King and breakfast cafe. Our room at the Travelodge faced into the back of the hotel, which was well maintained (and full of cute little bunnies!). Considering we only paid £28 a night during our stay, we were well pleased. Definitely one of the better Travelodges.

The car park at the north bound services are in a state of total chaos, new electric car charging…read morepoints are being installed but who ever is managing this should sacked. There is no organised segregation of arriving vehicles and the machinery used to resurface parts of the car park where the cables have been laid resulting in total chaos. followed the signs for cars and caravans and since we were towing a caravan we expected to see a place to park but we left with no where to park and because we were towing a caravan we could not turn around to find the exit but instead had to exit the back way resulting in a 15 mile detour to get back onto the M1

Shabby & poor food.read more

Roadchef Motorways - Chester Motorway Services is a decent stop, it is just off Junction 14 on the…read moreM56, opening in 1998 it is the only motorway service area on the M56 and the last before heading into North Wales, so it is a useful stop off for sure, even if it is just for a toilet break or rest. The service area was clean, modern and featured a good number of brands, many of which you'd expect to find in most motorway services anyway, but it did seem to offer more than the bare minimum. Brands here include Costa, Spar, WHSmith, and Leon as well as a 24-7 McDonald's and a Days Inn Hotel. I did find it a little hard to get in and out of the service area when using a car, as the layout isn't exactly clear when leaving, especially in the dark, and it is easy to go the wrong way when leaving, and going through the Shell Petrol Station. There are two hours of free parking and EV charging on-site, however, EV charging is a paid service. 4* - A useful stop-off on the M56, an above-average motorway service, which I will return to when passing through the area.

We consider Chester Services to be the half-way point on our monthly journey from Caernarfon to…read moreWest 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).

The bar next to the hotel, old converted stables give the place a quirky rural charm. The Batman…read morewas a hoot and the rest of the staff super friendly and charming. Great music (for me anyway) plays while you chow down on the outstanding delicious pub fare, all freshly cooked, hot and delicious. We are a fussy crew but loved every bite! Park by the back of the bar to avoid paying parking.

This is a very popular place for tourists and in the summer it gets very crowded,…read more It has a good range of local real ales which are served well. However. The food is terrible. It is overpriced, poor quality and in the case of the burger we had, just disgusting. It seems their strategy is to use the cheapest ingredients and charge top price for them. Everything is served with large amounts of salad to fill the plate up.

We call in at burtonwood services to get picked up and get dropped of for our cruise…read more We have been 4 times and always get there well before so we can relax with coffee and a snack. It is always a good start for our trip and the toilets are excellent before we get on the coach .last time on our way back I left my rucksack near the car park and after ringing the service office a very kind lady from there travelled 45 mins out of her way to bring to me . What a tremendous thing to do .she is a credit to the company and I send my heart felt thanks to her

Burtonwood Services is operated by Welcome Break, it is in the Burtonwood area of Warrington,…read morefairly close to the IKEA. I called in here to spend Christmas Day, due to a dislike for this day where near enough everything is shut, but British law dictates that stores must close on Christmas Day with an exception for motorway service stations, which must provide a basic service. I visited the Eastbound of Burtonwood, there are three outlets here: Starbucks, WHSmith and KFC - Two of those three outlets were open, the only one being closed being KFC, KFC share a small area and seating with the Starbucks, but of course this was closed today, the other part of the Eastbound was the typical Welcome Break Gaming, which was also closed with it being Christmas Day. From the outside, the services do look quite nice and appear to have some sort of solar-powered roof, it even looks futuristic due to the tiling, perhaps like an alien spaceship. The services its-self seems to be very basic services at the best of times, worsened by the fact it was Christmas Day when I visited, for example, there is not a Waitrose here like there tends to be at most other Welcome Break Service Stations. If you want to stop on the motorway while travelling through Warrington on the M62 this is a decent place to go, to grab a coffee at Starbucks perhaps and then get a snack from WHSmith or KFC, but that's about it, the cleanliness of the service station was good but in terms of selection and choice it was basic, another issue that arose was getting into the service station, approaching the Eastbound from Manchester way, I struggled to find the services, which involved various roundabouts and coming on and off the motorway which also was an issue. Christmas Openings and a decent branch of Starbucks help to warrant a two-star rating, but issues with overall selection, with the services, feeling a little basic through the lack of rival places to eat than KFC, and Waitrose not being located here like most other WB locations, and ease of access mean I can't go any higher.