They have moved their office closer towards Downtown. Jennifer was amazing and set me up for…read moreinteresting places to explore in the surrounding area. I definitely recommend stopping by to get the vast amount of brochures available.

If you never visited Monterey, I would advise a day trip anytime.....follow the signs for the…read moreVisitor Center cause by the time you get there, a bathroom break is needed....... Patti and Richard helped us with the Trolley route, a free Trolly that rides throughout the Monterey Pier, on and off anytime til 8pm......didn't know this prior to coming...... We got our map and decided to park on Cannery Row, where all the little shops and restaurants are......parking meters til 8pm.......so get your quarters ready......1.50 per hour.....now that is cheap..... So when you are there at the Visitor Center, you will see a packet of surverys and a pencil, just fill it out, I did, and to my surprise she brought out a weaved basket with tons of items, such as golf ball lip balms, postcards and lint cloth for glasses.......she offered each of us to choose one.......thanks again for all your help..... Our friends from NY had a wonderful time and so did us San Franciscans.....

The Pilot Travel Center in Salinas is often one of our stops as Dear Hubby and I traverse up and…read moredown Highway 101. It's kept clean, the gas is fairly priced compared to competitors, and the cashiers are usually friendly. They keep making improvements - subtle and otherwise - to their food / beverage area to the left as you enter the shop. It's like a mini-mart on steroids as far as the options that are available in the organized aisles. The also have just about every kind of beverage you can imagine. Their snack and quick meal choices are where they keep making changes and improvements. One highlight is that they seem to stock every kind of condiment one might want, whether it's flavored creamers for the coffee, or toppings for hot dogs. It seems like someone put a lot of thought into offering choices that people actually like and use at home, instead of cheaping out with generic and minimal offerings. The restrooms get a lot of use, but are usually well stocked with essentials and kept as clean as possible. The center is shared by passenger vehicles and big rig trucks, but it's laid out in such a way that they don't intersect and get in each other's way. This seems to be a well-run establishment.

dude with the glasses suck 11pm, just poor attitude and open a lane if you see the line long smh or…read morego fix the fountain drinks that's water down lol dang

Adorable little country store right off Highway 1! Nice wine selection and thank goodness they are…read moretaking masking seriously during the pandemic. Great place to stop and get supplies during a roadtrip. Please support this small business!

Place blows went in bought a 12 pack and 2 Yerba mates, eggs, and some ice and it cost $75. Asked…read morethe guy for a refund and he said he couldn't refund it.

December 7, 2025 - Turlock, CA…read more "I can't comment on the restroom facilities since I didn't use them, but the pet area was nice. It's a well-maintained space with a combination of grass and bark, plus a few trees. The area felt clean, safe, and convenient, and it was a great spot to let our dog stretch her legs. Always appreciate when a stop puts real effort into their pet facilities."

Clean restrooms. Easy off and on the freeway. Doggie area. Lots of parking for both passenger…read morevehicles and big trucks.

First off, the general store had amazing tacos. Al pastor and barbacoa were so good. We bought food…read morethere and some drinks then walked down to the river near the restaurant to enjoy our lunch. Yes it gets crowded so you may have to wait for an Adirondack chair or two.. but once you sit IN the river.. it's amazing. So peaceful and such a unique experience to be partially in the water. Highly recommend checking out this place, especially after a drive through Big Sur and some hiking at Point Lobos. Only negative is some people hoard chairs and may move them for their large group. Otherwise, it's chill.

This place is one of the prettiest places I have stayed overnight. If you are looking for peace and…read moretranquility, this is the spot. Getting up in the morning and walking down to the shallow river with your complimentary room coffee is Heaven. Then sitting on the provided river chairs and listening to the running creek is so relaxing. The staff is nice. Most of the staff have been working here for many years. I have read some negative comments about the cost of the rooms. Yes, the rooms at a little over $800 a night may be high, but remember this Motel is in a unique location of #Big Sur and I don't know of any other motels in Big Sur that can offer a river view just steps away from the water. So for me this was worth every penny. If you are wanting to explore the Big Sur area and spend time away from this Motel resort than you may want to use a budget motel. This motel was designed for rest and relaxation. The pool on site is a plus. The rooms don't have a microwave, fridge, or kitchen, so you will have to pack sandwiches and snacks in a cooler. Otherwise, the restaurant food is good and the general store next to it also sells deli style food, pizzas, hot sandwiches, and wraps. Oh, and the burritos are big enough to feed two. I highly recommend this place for a special occasion or for a wonderful memory to look back on.

This is a gas station and a convenient store called Love 's Travel Stop z…read more It has gas stations, Arby's for food and Love 's store for all your travel needed . Enclosed are photos of their gifts section . Many leather handbags, wallets and key rings . The wild animals gift figures are very nice . I like the wolf , buffalo and skeletons of the wild animals . The leather purses are Mexican Indian designs and nicely made. There is a huge mobile shop inside for your car . Very nice shops .

Funny how Ive heard so many people talk about Loves Travel Stop but never knew what they…read moremeant...lol... So basically I've never been. So it's a stop, gas station and convenience store. Basically something off the freeway that's kind of in the middle of nowhere. We stopped by for the restroom which would be the first time here. Honestly, it wasn't much to it. It's like walking into a 7'11 or your local AM/PM. Your traditional gas station with your basic. Chips, candies, snack, convenience store. Loads of drinks, of course the hot station with hot dogs and nachos where you help yourself. And then there's the selections of random souvenir you would only see at gas stations. They did have a decent gas station as well as a little dog park that's right next door for the pets to release themselves and get some fresh air. That's a nice little thing added to it. I can say that everyone working there was very sweet and friendly. They greeted everyone that walked through the door which majority was for the restroom. And thanked everyone for stopping by. You don't get that often at places like this. Nothing major but was nice to actually go to one and see what it was all about.

This is a lame joke, not a rest stop. Keep driving on the 5N to the John Chuck rest area. Peace!read more

Well maintained rest area. Clean, ample parking, toilet paper, soap and hot air dryers. No litter…read moreon the ground either. Appreciate this little stop!

Honestly not bad. There was toilet paper, seat covers, hand soap. One stall that I checked didn't…read morelock in women's bathroom and the floor was flooded in one of the stalls, but overall there wasn't a smell and the toilets flushed.

This is a review of the northbound side only…read more I've passed this thing so many times over the years and wondered Who the heck needs a rest stop this close to San Francisco, let alone this close to civilization? It's uselessly close to the beginning of my southbound trips, and I normally plan everything well and wouldn't even be on the 280 northbound 90 percent of the time. And then an annoying thing happened. On my last trip back up to San Francisco, traffic and traffic and leaving on the wrong day and traffic and traffic caused by a trampoline in the middle of the freeway and a little bit more traffic teamed up to stretch my trip out to about nine hours. So I actually needed to pee right around Crystal Springs--or I should say I held it vociferously, knowing Crystal Springs was coming up. From the parking lot, it looks really nice. The grounds are graded interestingly, the buildings are new, and the trash and recycling receptacles are clearly marked. I was prepared, maybe, to give it four stars. But then I had trouble actually finding parking. Yes, at around 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night, this smallish parking lot was almost filled with cars. I had to break some traffic laws to go back to the spots I had intentionally passed up because they were too close to the entrance. Why were all these people here? And about half of the cars had their lights on. I get it; I take naps at random times on the road too, but were all these people hunkering down at this place off the 280 by 10:30? On a Saturday? That spooked me a little bit, so I went to use the bathroom, and that's where it got worse. Yes, the buildings are nice and new, but there are or might be more than one building with a men's room and more than one with a women's room. The men's room I could find was disgustingly dirty. I don't mean it hadn't been cleaned for a while; I mean it was disgusting. There were pools of who knows what liquid in front of the regular urinals, the toilet stalls were Cyclospora ground zeros, and there were two or three separate intravenous drug kits just lying on the floor, one of them in a yellow puddle. I ended up using the kiddie urinal, which you can see from outside, for some reason, and the door was held open, and I had no interest in touching more than I absolutely needed to. I used to worry about rest stops in the middle of the night in rural, desolate areas. It turns out that the junkies, tweakers, johns, and people who tint their windshields to black (for some reason) are more likely to frequent rest stops in Burlingame. Who knew?

Very well run hotel, all around. Very good view rooms. Excellent restaurants. Good service…read more The piano player, Scott Brown, is excellent! So talented, very wide repertoire from Frank Sinatra to Beatles to Billy Joel to Bruno Mars! And both great singing and piano playing! He performs for 4 1/2 hours on Saturdays, from 5:30pm until at least 10pm. Also fantastic location, walking distance to local restaurants, Fishermans Wharf, Aquarium, and Cannery Row.

This hotel stay was plain and simple, not a good one. It was my last night in California during my…read morePacific Coast road trip starting in San Diego and it was my least favorite hotel. I was torn about whether to stay in Carmel by the Sea or Monterey so when I did a google search for hotels and saw this one had great reviews I picked it. I was on day 9 of my trip, was exhausted and flying back to New York the next day so I really just wanted a quality, safe, clean, nice hotel to end my trip and that didn't happen. The hotel is massive, it gave me real old school, resort vibes. Enormous lobby with televisions, dark wood chairs, giant bar and restaurant but it was horribly outdated. I mean, green carpet, I felt like I was back in the 90's. I checked in they could not find my reservation. I had booked on hotel tonight and they asked me what kind of room I booked. I told them one with a view and a manager came out and told me they didn't have any ocean view rooms. It was 10:30 at night, at this point I didn't care I just wanted to go to sleep. Eventually, after waiting at the front desk for a half hour they were able to locate my reservation. In the meantime I had left my luggage with the bell hop. They told me they would bring my suitcase up for me. I asked the guy to take it out of my trunk because I had just had surgery and couldn't do any lifting. Remember that for later. They gave me directions to my room and I couldn't believe the path I had to take to get there. Elevator up to the fourth floor, then I had to walk down an extremely long hallway, down another hall to ANOTHER elevator. Then I was to take that elevator DOWN a floor to get to my room. It felt like a joke. It was so unbelievably inconvenient. Throughout my journey to my room I noticed all of the windows in the hallway were cracked open. I realized quickly this was to air out the moldy musky smell of the hotel that desperately needed renovating. The carpet was filthy. My hotel room was so bleh. So outdated, the bed was so high I had to jump out of it my feet didn't touch the ground and I'm 5'8. The furniture was old, the carpet, I wouldn't take my socks off. I set up the luggage rack right in the front of the room so that when the bellhop brought my luggage up he could rest it on there for me since I made it clear I couldn't lift. I saw two bugs when I pulled down the comforter and at that point I was done. I went down to the front desk and told them about the bugs and that I wanted a new room. They couldn't help me. Completely ignored my request so I called the booking agency to tell them what was going on. I went back up to my room and saw my luggage in my room, horizontal on the floor despite the luggage rack being open and set up, right, next to it. Cool. I had to call someone up just to lift my luggage onto the rack because again, couldn't lift, post-surgical, made that clear. Whatever. Long story short by this time it was 11:30 pm I just wanted to sleep so I did that and left first thing in the morning. This hotel has absolutely no business charging the rates that they do. None. I would not stay here again.