Hillcrest Travel Plaza

This place does its job. This is where the BoltBus stops halfway through the trip. It has all the essential goodies of a convenience store plus bathrooms and a subway and a Mexican food place. The food is a little overpriced and the place can use a renovation or deep cleaning lol but overall good.

Lots of busses come through here and it shows. No toilet paper in the stalls and overflowing garbage. A mile long line for subway but not many people eating here. Mexican restaurant is fast food like but a bit more expensive. There are some cheaper options though. Food is very good. Salsa is hot and flavorful.

Travel stop along Hwy 5. This is an okay place to stop if you’re making it down to SoCal or coming up to NorCal.
There’s a pretty big convenient store with a lot of things (a lot of SNACKS). You would probably find the snack that you want in here.
However, the choices for restaurant food is quite limited. They only have a Subway and a Mexican place.
And oddly enough. they also have a massage place. I guess some people need massages during their long drive!
Probably not my top choices to stop along the 5. but I had no choice since I was on the BoltBus going back to NorCal.

Modest but ambitious travel center. There’s everything you need when you find yourself halfway between SF and LA — gas, has station snacks, restrooms, hot food options — and then there’s also a massage center (random, but kinda awesome, and they offer 30 min massages for $ 40… Great to get that road link outta your neck).
The building is large and pretty clean. There are plenty of restrooms, though when we went several were stuck and no flushing down. The snacks are plentiful and there’s a good mix of healthy and not healthy. The hot food is either subway or asadero’s Mexican seafood — tacos, tortes, etc. Not bad options at all.
Would definitely stop here again anytime I’m game for that drive.

Welcome to Avenal. Did you know Avena means oats in Latin? The greenest thing you’ll see around here in spring is wild oats, so the place is named well.
Hillcrest Travel Plaza is also named well. If you’re a photographer of great vistas, this journeyer’s waystop has a lofty viewpoint into the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley agricultural empire. When the parking lot trees mature, this will be a pleasant shady resting spot.
Fuel, coffee, washrooms, food. What else would a traveler need? Massage? That’s what the little neon sign said in 2013.

Avenal… I’m in… Avenal.
I didn’t even know Avenal existed, until my Greyhound stopped here at 3 AM. But this was an okay place to get down and do some calisthenics in the store aisles, before getting back on for another 3 hours. The bathroom was nice and clean, too.
Apparently, there is also a Moon Unit nearby, since that’s where Apple Maps said I was.

Coming from San Jose this morning, I started early enough that I didn’t want to eat and get caught in a traffic jam, so I headed to I-​5 as soon as possible. I thought I’d wait until Wasco on S.R. 46, but I needed a break a bit earlier.
The drive way is a bit far, west from I-​5, so you need to have some patience. I could see someone trying to turn early or an accident happening.
Their fuel prices seemed okay, but I had enough fuel to get from San Jose to Barstow and then some. I went to get something for breakfast and get some drink to keep me awake.
Between Subway and the Mexican food, I chose Subway and probably should have chosen the other. It’s not that Subway is so bad, but it’s never really tasty. It didn’t kill me, for sure, or I wouldn’t be writing this review, would I?
The convenience store was okay, if a bit high, but not surprising given the lack of competition. The cashier seemed indifferent.