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For decades, travelers going up and down highways and byways in the U.S. have had a few dominant brands to choose from when it’s time to fuel up or take a rest. Love’s Travel Stops, Pilot Flying J, and TravelCenters of America are the three dominant chains coast to coast. For most, they’re a place to fill up the tank, grab your favorite roadie soda, take a break in a (hopefully clean!) bathroom, and stretch your legs a bit before you try to catch up to all those cars you passed earlier.
There are a few truck stops, however, that stand out as more than just rural highway scenery. These travel plazas are destinations in their own right, whether you’re a pro trucker trying to liven up the routes or a road tripper with a little time for the scenic route. From Oregon to Iowa, these seven stopovers range from slick new corporate behemoths with celebrity styling to mom-and-pop mainstays that have been on the map for 70 years.
World’s Largest Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa
Since 1964, the Iowa 80 has claimed the world title for Largest Truckstop with whole city’s worth of services, with a convenience store, barber shop, embroidery shop, interstate dental practice, chiropractor, pet wash and dog park, drivers’ lounge, laundromat, a gym and a movie theater. There are six restaurants to choose from, from the Iowa 80’s own kitchen to a Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Dairy Queen, and a Blimpie. The Iowa 80 even includes a truck showroom in addition to fleet services.
If there’s one time to visit, it’s the Truckers Jamboree, which begins this year on July 9. Started in 1979, the “Best Trucker Party in the Country” is a family-friendly affair featuring a “Super Truck Beauty Contest” for the prettiest rigs, an Iowa Pork Chop Cook-Out, an antique truck show, fireworks, and country bands. Don’t miss the Trucker Olympics, including a tire rolling contest, strap winding speed runs, and a truck pull that pits a strong man and a strong woman against a 12,000-pound antique cement truck. Admission to the Jamboree is free,
Buc-Ees in Luling, Texas
What’s the big deal about Buc-ees? Buc-ees was founded in 1982 in Lake Jackson, Texas, and its reputation for scale matches that of the nearby Houston metro area. The first-ever Buc-ees is more of a standard convenience store size, but the biggest is outside of Austin in Luling. Clocking in at 75,000 square feet, the Luling location beat out the previous Buc-ees record-holder in Dolly Parton’s hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee. But Luling won’t hold the title for much longer: a new 76,245 square foot facility will be opening in Fort Pierece, Florida in 2027.
It’s the details that fill all the square footage that have made Buc-ees something of a national phenomenon. Case in point, Indie musician Phoebe Bridgers recently posted a photo of herself cradled in the arms of the Buc-ees beaver in Loxley, Alabama (the first location to open outside Texas) as she launches her first tour in several years.
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Buc-ees boasts its own brand of snacks, including Beaver Nuggets (named for the chain’s mascot) that are big puffed corn pieces glazed in crunchy caramel. For bigger appetites, Buc-ee’s brisket sandwiches, barbecue offerings, and kolaches give visitors a taste of Texas. There’s also a vast assortment of merchandise to be had, from Buc-ees merch to cast iron cookware, outdoor grills, and an entire wall of beef jerky. One thing that makes Buc-ees unique? It’s not a truck stop. The hundreds of gas pumps and record-length car wash at this travel plaza are just that, for cars.
Dolly’s Tennesseean Travel Stop in Cornersville, Tennessee
“When I sit back in my rocker, I want to have done it all,” Dolly Parton told Time magazine in 1977. Nearly fifty years later, she’s stuck to that cup of ambition, adding “truck stop proprietress” to her long and illustrious resume. The country star just cut the ribbon at Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop, halfway between Nashville and Birmingham at Exit 22 off Interstate 65.
Emblazoned with a cheeky logo that reimagines the classic “mudflap girl” silhouette with Dolly’s famous bouffant and a microphone, Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop is hard to miss. The destination includes all the amenities and Southern hospitality you could expect, including an event space, a fully stocked general store, a dog park, a trucker’s lounge, hot showers, laundry facilities, and the singer’s own coffee brand.
Related: Dolly Parton’s Newest Venture Is Aimed at Travelers — Here’s What She’s Building
The full-service restaurant features down-home fare like breakfast biscuits, barbecue sandwiches, and brisket, with the singer’s signature butterfly icon noting which recipes were developed from her Good Lookin’ Cookin’ book with Rachel Parton George.
Given how often the singer must have driven past the Buc-ees Sevierville, near her Dollywood theme park, it’s not surprising she had a quip for her competitor: “I’m sure some of you want to know why I wanted a truck stop. Well, I couldn’t leave it to beavers.”
Russell’s Travel Center in Glenrio, New Mexico
Route 66 ran from Chicago to Santa Monica through the Texas panhandle up until 1985, when the “Mother Road” made famous by John Steinbeck was replaced by the newer, faster I-40 route. But you can still get your kicks on the Texas / New Mexico border at Russell’s Travel Center in Glenrio. Russel’s is packed to the gills with midcentury kitsch, including a classic car museum worthy of American Graffiti, a mid-century style diner, and more prints of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe than you can shake a stick at.
Russel’s was founded in 1995 by Mark Russel, a New Mexican entrepreneur who grew up in a family where trucking and diners were a way of life. In addition to the chapel, car wash, convenience store, and gas pumps, Russel showcased a selection of the vintage cars he began collecting in 1977. In 2023, TravelCenters of America purchased Russel’s Truck & Travel, but has maintained the car museum and diner that have made this a throwback favorite for over thirty years.
Related: The Ultimate Under-the-Radar Summer Road Trip Guide for the 250th Anniversary
Jubitz Truck Stop & Travel Center in Portland, Oregon
Truckers forums and Reddit threads continue to hail Jubitz as one of the best truck stops in the country, with amenities you don’t usually find but feel very Oregonian, like the Jubitz Cinema. No one loves a movie theater quite like Portlanders (there’s also a short-film cinema at the PDX airport), and the 52-seat theater at Jubitz offers $6 tickets that’s hard to beat.
For livelier fare, The Ponderosa Lounge regularly features country bands, line dancing, and events like the Rose City Round Up Car Show. The Portlander Inn offers travelers a clean, convenient place to stay near Portland International Raceway. There are also two restaurants on site, including the Jake Brake Deli and the home-style Cascade Grill, which serves all-day breakfast. It’s been known as “the world’s classiest truck stop” since 1952, and was dubbed “Disneyland for Truckers” by Willamette Week.
The Lincoln Highway Tavern in Evanston, Wyoming
What it lacks in size, scale, or star power, Highway 30 makes up for in history and authenticity. It’s named for the first coast-to-coast highway in the United States, which preceded the more famous Route 66 by about a decade and was later replaced by Highway 30. Founded in 2015 by local Michael Kindler, this is less a travel plaza than a local bar and restaurant in a former gas station, with outstanding bison sloppy joes, tamarind-chile tacos, and spicy wings. That said, the Lincoln Highway Tavern is tucked right next to a Flying J truck stop if you need to get some gas and put some groceries down your neck, as they say in the 1977 trucker classic Smokey and the Bandit.
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“Good food, real rest, a little music, and people who are genuinely glad you stopped in.… That’s what the road has always deserved,” said Dolly Parton at the June 24 ribbon cutting in Cornersville, Tennessee. Whether you stop at Dolly’s or another travel plaza on this list, there’s some real hospitality to be found coast to coast at travel plazas new and old.
