‘I ditched UK for Spain and there’s been 1 unexpected benefit to life’ | Travel News | Travel

A woman has shared the unexpected benefit she found when moving to Spain, and it’s something she notices every time she takes a long drive on the country’s motorways.

Susie, who uses her platform to show “real life in Spain,” complained that when you’re driving for a while in the UK, service stations are boring. You can’t really spend more than 20 minutes there before you’ve exhausted all you need to do, aka grab some food in Burger King and use the toilet in a drab-looking grey-ish building.

She shared a video of herself driving, saying that “motorway stops in Spain are different”. And they really are!

As part of her Instagram caption, she wrote: “I still can’t decide what surprises me more… the fact this was a motorway service station… or the fact that people here seem perfectly happy having wine and a three-course lunch halfway through a drive.”

Susie said that she was going to get some lunch, and she took her followers along for the ride so they could see what it was actually like compared to the UK.

“Motorway stops in Spain still surprise me. It’s like walking into a regular bar. There’s beer on tap and jamon legs hanging on the wall,” Susie said, a bit like a restaurant you’d see in a European country.

She continued: “There’s even a proper restaurant where you sit down with a tablecloth, have several courses, and fresh bread. There’s even water on the table.

“And what surprises me most is that this isn’t even considered unusual here. It’s just a normal stop on a long drive. Meanwhile, in the UK, most service stations feel basically identical. The same chains, the same shops, the same food.

“In the UK, I would never normally stop for more than 20 minutes, but here, we stayed for around an hour and a half.”

She said that in Spain, it’s easier to take things slowly and just enjoy your nice meal, rather than feeling the pressure to get back on the road again quickly.

In the comments, someone wrote: “We used to drive to a specific stop by the highway to get stew because it was really nice hahaha, sad they’ve been disappearing where I’m from.”

Another said: “Love these, they’re all over Europe! But the ones in Spain and Italy are the best, rouiter they’re called. My favourite was a pizza bar just as you enter Italy through the Fréjus tunnel in a town called Bruzzalo.”

A man penned: “When friends come to visit me in my house in Spain I take them to the local truck stop. The food is epic and my friends always leave flabbergasted by how good it is.”

While a fourth shared: “The best part about travelling from one city to another by car in Spain is stopping by in a ‘venta’ (roadside restaurant). The food is usually delicious and huge amounts.”

A fifth said: “It depends… if travelling just for the weekend… 2,3 days… something quick to get to the destination as soon as possible. If it is a week… longer… just choose the best stop with the best traditional food and enjoy vacations since the first moment!!!”