This is the motorway service located at the junction of the M1 and A42, which brings traffic up from the M42. It's a busy place in high summer as it's on the route from Yorkshire to the south Midlands and South West.
It's located off the motorway itself, on a roundabout, close to East Midlands airport and the junction with A50.
Overall , it's your typical services with catering, a Travelodge hotel, and a large BP petrol station. The latter has a car wash and a small shop. The services are all in large single building, with shops and eateries situated around a cavernous central seating area. These include Greggs, Costa, Harvester, Burger King, West Cornwall Pasty Co, Krispy Kreme and M&S Food. The hotel is built into the main building, and overlooks the central eating area.
So there's nothing out of the ordinary in terms of food options, but the gents toilets had weird circular sinks like giant water fountains and no shelf or other place to put down gloves or your crash helmet. That said, it was pretty clean.
It has a compact internal road layout which seems to be quite confusing, given the number of cars I saw going the wrong way down a one-way section of road. So be warned. read more