I-84 Rest Area and Information Center

Facility has been extensively renovated with new lobby, restrooms, staffed visitor center (limited hours) with brochures, water fountain, and vending machines both inside and outside which accept cash and credit cards. 24 hour/​365 day DOT staffing in office. Vast improvement from its previous condition. Outdoor porch overlooking nearby preserve is now reopened but no benches like it had years ago. Also, no benches in visitor center/​lobby or outside facility. Many no loitering signs on property along with state police patrol this area regularly signs. Picnic area only place to sit down. RV dump component removed from property. No ATM, WiFi, or change machines. Separate parking for cars and trucks. First rest area for miles, Mass on I-​84 simply has a «picnic area» with parking, picnic tables and a porta potty.

Having missed the stop on Mass Pike we showed up really late at night for the restrooms. Was surprised to find the huge selection of maps on paper and the ample vending machines.
The employee seemed a tad gruff but he’s used to dealing with truckers all day and night. And the tons and tons of truckers resting here made us feel safe. I knew for sure someone was watching us in the parking lot. In a good way. Man it’s dark out here at night.

I am glad I stopped her during the day. Now I know that I should not stop here if I am driving back to Connecticut alone at night. It is small and sketchy looking and really just a place for you to use the restroom and hop back in your vehicle. You can grab maps, brochures and a snack from the vending machines but that’s it. Connecticut Welcomes You!

Meanest rest area attendant ever! I stopped to let my spouse out to use the rest room and was yelled at to move (my spouse didn’t jump out of the car fast enough I guess). I moved and stopped again to let someone cross in front of me and the woman attendant came running up to me and yelled at me. She called me a moron! I couldn’t believe it and once she saw I was just letting someone cross in front of me, she yelled that I should try working with jerks like me for 65 hours a week! Wow… crazy. I would love her to be reprimanded for her aggressive behavior; it was pretty scary.

What can you say — it’s a rest areas. If you miss the stop on the Mass Pike, this is the next one you get to on your way through Hartford. I’ve definitely been to nicer, cleaner rest areas. Truth be told, it’s a bit sketchy, especially at night. But, if you have to go, you have to go and I’m just glad that we don’t have to get off of the highway and search for a place.

I liked this rest area/​/​Official Connecticut Visitor Center. It comes fully equipped with trees-​trees-​trees, rogue squirrels, picnic tables and bbq’s, toilets inside and out, as many brochures about Connecticut as you can possibly want or need and religious groups trying to get you to ‘go Christian’ right next to a ‘no solicitors’ sign. Awh, yeah… you’ve gotta love CT!

I think it was somewhere just past this rest area, I saw a fat escaped domestic rabbit. (No doubt, it was white with black spots and dining in the median. At first I thought it was a soccer ball.)
Oh, and all up and down I-​84 in CT, either Snapdragon or Butter-​and-​eggs (hard to tell from a passing vehicle).

Decent spot and one I frequent when in the area. They have just about everything.
Allix review is very complete and accurate.