{"id":108690,"date":"2026-08-22T09:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108690\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T09:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T09:54:07","slug":"i-tried-britains-best-and-worst-motorway-services-according-to-telegraph-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/108690\/","title":{"rendered":"I tried Britain\u2019s best and worst motorway services, according to Telegraph readers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe coffee and the atmosphere are both very pleasant,\u201d said Jacob in London while George, also based in the capital, rated the <a class=\"ck-custom-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/wetherspoons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wetherspoons<\/a> pub (called the Hope and Champion) on site. Jane in the West Midlands said she liked this service station, run by the Extra group, for the \u201ceasy parking, hotel and pub, plus many food outlets. The toilets are always clean; it\u2019s a pleasant experience\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Initial impressions on my visit aren\u2019t encouraging, however. The digital advertising board outside the main entrance is promoting \u201cthe UK\u2019s largest bin storage\u201d, which would be a good future home for the coffee machine in the WH Smith\u2019s outlet.<\/p>\n<p>Not to be deterred, I make my way inside a low-ceilinged, circular space with reasonably clean tables, with the usual-suspect fast food retailers lining the perimeter. As my visit is in the early morning, the pub nor the German Donor Kebab stand were open, while the branch of Wagamama doesn\u2019t appear to have finished being built.<\/p>\n<p>A quite alarming amount of high-vis-jacketed security men don\u2019t appear to have much to do except direct customers to the toilets; a surprising requirement given how large the signs to the ladies\u2019 and gents\u2019 are.<\/p>\n<p>Beaconsfield wins points not because it does anything particularly well but because it is moderately less awful than most rivals. The toilets are clean, the noise levels aren\u2019t horrendous and, if you\u2019re having far too good a time to leave, the adjacent Ibis budget hotel has rooms from \u00a354 per night.<\/p>\n<p>Gloucester Services<\/p>\n<p>Rob\u2019s ranking: nine out of 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe coffee and the atmosphere are both very pleasant,\u201d said Jacob in London while George, also based in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,453,34414,424,3359,165,330,1797],"class_list":["post-108690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-cars","tag-cars-advice","tag-lifestyle","tag-motorways","tag-roads","tag-standard","tag-top-story"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117138559075742459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}