Earlier this month, my husband and I took a road trip from New Jersey to Chicago and back. On our second day of the trip, we were driving from Pittsburgh to Chicago. There was a part where we drove through Indiana. We made our first IN pitstop at the Ernie Pyle Travel Plaza (6/5). I thought this rest stop was very nice. I remember there was a Nathan's and Sbarro. There were also nice map and tourist information displays. Also the bathrooms were clean. read more

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Yet another travel plaza review, Mallory? Haven't you reviewed enoigh of them? Well, when you drive on the Ohio and Indiana turnpike as much as I do, you're gonna visit a lot of travel plazas. And this is quite a good one! It's clean, modern, and stocked with a few fast food options like Sbarro and Dunkin as well as a 7-11. There's plenty of room for both cars and trucks to park as well. The gas prices are a few cents more than off turnpike places though but all pumps were working when I visited. I didn't get any food on my last visit but I had previously gotten a 7-11 slurpee and my 7-11 rewards were accepted here. I'd drive the extra few miles to gas up here again. read more

Nice facility but if you have a dog, the pet area is the worst here. Go to another stop

Exceptional kindness and service from person working the store, 06.27.2025 5-6am. I honestly cannot say that rest area has ever left a lasting impression on me, but this one did. read more

Only 2 pumps open, Popeyes had half the menu unavailable, urinals closed in the men's bath, not clean. Headed to the next rest stop.

Food services were closed at 8 PM, which is ridiculous. Save yourself time and money and stop at one of restaurants that are right off the tollway. read more

they are always cleaning and the food there is not the best but is good and the the 7-11 is great and every thing is in order the snacks there are good I would always come here. I put 4 stars because at dunkin there is only 2 people working there and are not so nice and are always talking and not doing there job. read more

While this facility was pretty clean, they do not have the Food Court selection that the Travel Stop areas in Ohio have. And in the men's restroom, of the 7 stalls, 3 were out of order (and the place was busy. Had to wait in line). Because of where I stayed last night only serve frozen waffles (had freshly made ones yesterday) and donuts, I decided to wait till I got on the road to get breakfast. But, I have no clue that I have to drive almost 60 miles before I found something. :-o Luckily the travel stop did have a restaurant that serves various meals 24/7. So, I got Taylor ham, egg and swiss breakfast sandwich, along with tater tots (I guess that's their version of home fries :-D ). The breakfast sandwich was really large, and for the price ($4.39), it was excellent. And the tater tots were piping hot, as the sandwiches are made to order. But their breakfast pizzas (breakfast pizzas?) were not. read more

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This place has been remodeled and is very nice however the restaurants (Sbarro and Dunkin Donuts) except for Popeyes close at 7pm. It's ridiculous. Who closes at dinner time? The service at Popeyes was terrible. It seems everyone that worked there had a poor attitude. The whole place except for the convenience store was nasty. read more

Came here when I was heading back from Mishawaka and wanted to give this place a shot since I was in need of gas, food and drinks. The Starbucks there is pretty expensive first and foremost which is why I didn't go there. Bathrooms are spotless. The food Mart has plenty of stores to choose from even providing healthy options which is what I wish alot of these stores would start doing. Overall on the bad side, it's a definite expensive Oasis too but it's not worth getting off the tollway to go elsewhere for though. read more

I am A trucker so of course I would recommend this place . The restrooms were functioning perhaps the time I was there was a time of high traffic. No paper towels but I survived. The restaurant's there were subpar. I purchased coffee at Starbucks the barista seem to be struggling with making drinks and coordination of how he made drinks was concerning In That he used multiple cups it just looked disorganized. Second I went Popeyes they didn't have sauces and the chicken tasted dated. The only thing that was fresh was the biscuits. read more

Ernie Pyle Travel Plaza - Travel Services Near Me - Howe, Indiana

Stopped for coffee and to use the bathroom... The women's bathroom didn't have anything on the floors but it didn't feel clean... Walls and sink faucets could use a wipe down and coat hooks on stall doors could use repairs. I found it interesting that there were signs beneath them that said "use coat hook" but some hooks were falling off. My boyfriend said the men's bathroom had urine on the floor and smelled horrible. :/ There are signs pointing to the pet walk area but unless it's behind the building, I didn't see any grass. There's a coffee place, Hardee's, and burrito place, as well as a small convenience store and visitor information area. There are lotto machines and massaging recliners inside as well, and gas beside it. read more

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Not a bad rest stop. I was surprised by the low ratings since it was mostly clean and there are places that are open---Popeyes, a pizza place, convenient store goods, maps and travel info, clean rest room etc... As far as a one stop place it has it all. The Starbucks was closed so and coffee options are unlikely (for now, during Covid 2020). Only bad point was the trash was overflowing in many areas. read more

Yo Indiana toll road, wake up!!!!!!! Read these reviews, seriously! The toll plaza itself was nice but the bathrooms were falling apart. Who the heck is taking (hardy har har) care of this place? I'm not paying exorbitant tolls to not be able to go to a nice clean bathroom. Literally, I'm paying for THAT???????? There are people who would love to have jobs, hire some maintenance workers! It was horrid! read more

This is another cool rest stop. There are only a few places to eat such as Sbarros, Popeyes, and Starbucks. The dining room area is kept clean. If looking for gifts to take home from Indiana, there is a gift shop. For the snackers, there is a Convenient store with candy bars, donuts, fruit drinks. soda and much more. read more

Ernie Pyle Travel Plaza - Travel Services Near Me - Howe, Indiana

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This was the nicest travel plaza I've been to! It is extremely modern and clean inside. It has a Sbarro, Starbucks, Popeyes, and a huge convenience and gift stores. Lots of indoor seating! Also has the usual-- large parking lot, information packets, numerous gas pumps, pet relief station, etc. Surprisingly clean and modern for a travel plaza! Highly recommend using this travel plaza if on the Indiana Toll Road! read more

There was trash all over the parking lot. Every trash bin was overflowing. The restrooms were filthy!

It's has lots of parking plus a food court inside it has Starbucks,good n fresh and Popeyes. The place is very clean with a big restroom and large seating area. I like they have a Starbucks but the prices are a little higher. read more

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Brand new toll plaza stop not even finished yet already suffering from poor maintenance. Recommend passing unless you only need gas. Visited at 0915 hrs Sunday 9-July Bathroom, brand new, 1/2 of the faucets not working. Only one soap dispenser of 4 that were working had soap. No paper towels by the baby changing station. Floor filthy, toilets dirty, stall doors dirty. Starbucks, got flat white and sausage muffin. Egg cold, pork sausage uncooked in middle (didn't find out till on the road). Flat white was ok but they declined to put sugar in bottom. (There goes your tip...) Gas pumps new, have Apple Pay . Price was not a rip off, same as off-turnpike in Michigan by family home. Over all, not a total loss. Would stop for gas but that is it. Continue on for anything else. I travel with a family of 5 at least 3 times a year, 10 hrs to our destination. If you want my hard earned dollar, you will have clean bathrooms, cooked food and courteous service. read more

Terrible! Women's restroom was flooded. one toilet continuously ran/flushed. Restaurant did not open on time. Pizza was cold and did not taste good. Numerous tables didn't have chairs, l could go on and on! Don't bother stopping, I won't ever again! read more

Overpriced! They're always out of food. Been there twice and out of the 3 things we wanted to order they were out of 2. (Popeyes) how can you not have chicken at a chicken place? Employees need better customer relation training. They all seemed to have I don't give a crap attitide. read more

Awesome renovation- no reason to wait for Ohio clean restroom. Healthy food options don't have to depend on a Toledo stop anymore! read more

Ernie Pyle Travel Plaza - American Standard in the upscale bathrooms on Indiana toll rd, love it! - Travel Services Near Me - Howe, Indiana

Its an indiana toll plaza.evwrything costs 3 dollars more than it would anywhere else. They rebuilt all of them new...they still barely bother to clean the bathrooms. read more

Hey, we hit another rest stop! Eh, there's clean bathrooms and pricey convenience store snacks, and that's 'bout all ya need to know. read more

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. It's newly renovated, but like other reviewers noted, the bathrooms were not in great condition, there were few faucets with soap, and trash cans were overflowing throughout the building. The layout of the building is such that the convenience store aisles are in the middle of everything. You can't stand around without being in way of somebody... and trust me, if you order food, you'll be standing around for a while. The fast food restaurant was slow, ran out of fries, and yet they still insisted on topping each sandwich individually, similar to Subway, but much slower. Everything about this place, from design to upkeep to service, was bad. read more

Yes, this place is newer than most rest stops and has some healthier food options - but they have no high chairs in the entire place, no soap in the family restroom and no soap in the first FOUR dispensers I tried in the women's room?! What a joke. How do the employees making your food wash their hands? Gross. Don't waste your time stopping here. read more

Ernie Pyle travel is nice but to far from Merrillville,Indiana Was very disappointing about not being able to purchase the key ring I wanted. aside from that the business was very nice and food was good . read more

New and much better than the dumps that were the rest areas before. Ate the Burger King, there were flies swarming around everywhere in that section of the rest stop. read more

Soap dispensers give 1 drop of soap. It didn't even lather. I tried multiple dispensers. All gave 1 tiny drop.

This is a nice rest stop appearance-wise. The food at their store was meh (fries undercooked), but I wasn't offended by it. You could tell some things needed maintenance, yet compared to other rest stops I've seen, this most definitely was not the worst. I'm no rest-stop connoisseur, but just some simple up-keeping on their facilities would go a long way for this place. read more

Brand new Plaza and it's a dump. Who ever cut corners on this place really messed it up. The bathrooms are disgusting, not cleaned or maintained, and half the sinks and stalls are out of order and they all smell putrid. The food places close at 7pm and 9pm and the convenience store has a section for hot food, but every time I've stopped they haven't had anything in it. This place is just garbage. Avoid it and go to either the first one in Ohio which is beautiful or go to the next one that hasn't been renovated in Indiana. Who ever paid for this to get redone and who ever the contractor was completely Robbed the Toll Authority. read more

This rest stop is a true oasis! We were driving in some pretty hairy winter conditions & this exit was exactly what we needed! With a large family needing a clean place to stretch our legs, healthy food options (a welcome change from all of the nasty fast food options found elsewhere) Starbuck's & even a family restroom complete with a miniature commode. Well done! This stop was a real God-send to a nervy family driving in the whiteout! read more

As i use to work here. Managements a joke, she starts rumors about her employees and makes them run to the bathroom crying, talks bad about them too other employees and when you call corporate and complain oh well they don't care. Popeyes has cooked they're chicken all day for 2nd shift to find plastic handled putty knife and plastic handled knife in the bottom of the fryers. One of my coworkers got food poisoning from a hot dog from refresh. The manager made us change the dates on week old expired pastries at star bucks, refreeze them and sell them later. Please becarefull buying food from here. I'd stick to prepackaged stuff from the kiosk. read more

My experience at this Popeyes #12509 was horrible. Alphonso was not only impolite, he also did not wear gloves while making orders while brandishing a bandage on his hand. He repeatedly went back and forth from packing food to the register with no gloves worn nor at least a wash of his hands. He seemed very distracted, especially when another worker was present completely disregarding customers and the growing line. Furthermore, he basically slid my order across the counter to me while it was still unopened and did not close it i had to myself. Mind you, i was already disgusted with the fact that he wore no gloves WHILE A BANDAGE WAS ON HIS HAND and was also going back and forth from food to handling money and ALSO no mask. It's Covid. At minimum gloves AND a face mask should be on dealing with customers and their food so closely. Any thing i asked him for he seemed as if I was bothering him for hot sauce etc. he did not properly greet or show good customer service to any guest i observed before and after me. Had the other restaurants been open I would've just gone there to spend my money. read more

Really disappointing, it was obviously built to be really nice but *every* *single* trash can was overflowing, as were recycle cans. The women's and men's bathrooms both had trash and toilet paper all over the floor and some of the automatic toilets did not flush automatically and didn't even have a manual button. The drinking fountains also were covered in hard water stains, it really isn't that hard to wipe them off once a day with disinfectant and stainless steel cleaner. read more

I can't believe that Indiana made such a mess of the new rest stops. The food was horrible, some independent heathy place, but the food must have been out all day. The space is tiny, and can't accommodate enough people of cars on busy weekends. The waterless urinals already smell like an outhouse. I have seen them in the Cayman Islands, all the water comes from desalination, and the resorts keep those suckers clean. The minimum wage staff at the rest stop are doomed. It's an outhouse and stinks after being open one month. read more

it's been rebuilt but it's Indiana. this means dirty! they just don't care and it shows.

Wow. We waited in line at Popeyes, behind two other patrons for over 15 minutes with no one behind the counter even acknowledging us and they just kept scrambling around. It was the most disorganized display I've ever seen. The couple in front of us left and we decided to shortly after. The rest of the place was kind of a dive, but the gas station had a very good selection of snacks so we just ate stuff from there. read more

Bought a fountain drink for my son with special needs. I specifically asked for lemonade because he can't drink carbonated or caffeinated drinks. They said they had lemonade. When I tried to get the lemonade it only gave water. I went back to the counter to ask about it and the same person who sold me the fountain drink said they were out of lemonade. No apology, no refund, horrible! read more

BIG PROBLEM. The closing time is way to early. The small shop stays open a little longer than the rest of the food area, but my family and I waked into there at 8:30PM and the food area ( Popeyes, and the healthy food choice place) were closing up. They should be open until at least 10 PM. My family and I had had a long drive on the road and just wanted to sit down and eat an actual meal. Another problem. My daughter was trying to get a hummus cup from the side with the restaurants but since that area was closing they told her she couldn't. Ridiculous. Worst rest stop ever. Probably will only stop here to use restrooms. That's it. read more