Why RV'ers LOVE Pilot Flying J Travel Centers

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Did you know May 27th is National Road Trip Day? If you didn’t, let me fill you in—Pilot and Flying J Travel centers have always been a huge part of road trip culture, thus they have dubbed the Friday before Memorial day each year as the official kick off to the Summer road trip season! This year National Road Trip Day falls on May 27th.

Whether you are setting out on a short road trip, or an extended summer RV and camping trip, or even traveling full-time in your RV, the one constant in those adventures will be those times you will be pulling off of the highway to rest, grab some snacks and refuel. And, a road trip is certainly not complete without seeing or stopping at one of the 750 Pilot and Flying J Travel Center locations in North America!

I’ll start by saying, when the two of us first hit the road in 2017, we quickly learned not all gas stations are made easily accessible for larger recreational vehicles. Something we never thought twice about until we were traveling full-time in an RV. We are going to break down some of our very favorite accommodations Pilot and Flying J Travel Centers offer to make RVing and summer road trips convenient for all types of travelers.

This is an accommodation we truly started to appreciate while traveling in our travel trailer. Which is why it is #1 on this list! There is nothing worse than pulling into a gas station and realizing you may have a bit of trouble figuring out how to maneuver around tight gas pump lanes. A large portion of Pilot and Flying J Travel Centers have started adding RV and trailer specific RV Fuel Islands. These islands are often equipped with other necessities for RV travel, but we will get more into that in just a moment.

While traveling across the United States in our RV, we often find ourselves needing a quick overnight rest area that does not take us too far off of the highway. These times are short enough rests where we would not need to spend a night at a campground or take the time to find free dispersed camping in the area. This is when we look for Pilot and Flying J Travel Centers with designated RV parking spots (typically found in the front of the gas station, not in the back where the truck parking spots are). These RV parking spots can be used as a safe spot to rest before getting back on the highway. This is a go-to for us, as we can get everything we need at one stop—fuel, food, there are sometimes small dog runs at these travel centers, laundry, and even showers if you want to freshen up before hopping back on the road the next day!

*The RV parking spots at PFJ are often just elongated parking spots with “RV” painted on the asphalt. They are typically not wide enough to put out slides if there are other RV’ers resting in the same parking lot, and it would not be appropriate to set out chairs or grills for an overnight rest.

Remember to always be considerate of other customers, and that this is not an extended place to “camp”.

Long cross-country road trips in an RV allows you to have the comforts of home with you on the road. Which means you will likely be using water from sinks, and showers, as well as using your toilet (who doesn’t love traveling with a private toilet with you at all times LOL), so dumping your RV tanks and filling up on fresh water becomes a new chore. At Pilot and Flying J Travel Centers you can find the RV dump station right in the RV Fuel Islands!

There is a fee to use the RV dump/sanitation station. The fee is typically somewhere between $5-$10. To use the dump station you will need to pay the fee by going inside to the cashier where they will give you a code to access the sewer connection. We love that PFJ’s try to have everything so close and convenient in the RV fuel islands!

More often than not when “gas station food” is talked about it is generally about bags of chips, and candy options. Pilot and Flying J Travel centers have a variety of food that is made “in-house”. Our personal favorites are the house-made pizza and the chicken tenders. They also have a seasonal rotation of fruit specials and healthier refrigerated snacks to grab and get back on the road. And, if those options still don’t ring a bell for you, there is almost always an on-site vendor like Subway, Cinnabon, or even Denny’s. So, lots to choose from if you get tired of chowing down on bags of chips on your road trips!

While we mainly use our GPS on our cell phones to navigate, having the Pilot Flying J App downloaded makes it very quick and easy to check gas prices ahead of us and see what is offered at each Pilot and Flying J Travel Center on our travels. Although most of the savings found on the app are for professional truck drivers, there are quite a few deals and offerings like the trip planner feature, and gift cards that you can benefit from using the app on your next road trip!

There are quite a few more reasons why we personally have made it a point to always try to stop at PFJ Travel Centers when we need to refuel, but these 5 reasons are what really keep us coming back! We’re hoping this blog will help RV’ers and road trip adventurers find easier access to amenities that are super useful while traveling on the road. We hope you all enjoy your road trips this summer!