Welcome

Welcome to the Interstate Rest Areas website. The information presented here will help you locate rest areas across the United States. There are several ways to view the information:

Be sure to check out our book, Rest Area Guide. It’s available at Amazon and other online retailers and is useful for when you don’t have an Internet connection.

Lost Items

If you believe you’ve lost or left an item in a rest area, you’ll need to contact the appropriate State Department of Transportation (DOT) office. Each state’s DOT office is responsible for maintaining rest areas. They may be able to assist you with items lost or left behind in a rest area. Please do not contact us as we are unable to assist you.

Overnight Parking Rules

Some states allow weary travelers to sleep in their vehicles as long as needed; others place a time limit on how long you should stay. Time limits are not generally strictly enforced unless there is reason to believe the rules are being abused.

Camping is not permitted in any rest area. Camping is generally defined as setting up a tent or sleeping on the ground. Sleeping in your RV is not considered camping. There are some rest areas, however, in Oregon and Montana that provide access to a state park or national forest in which camping is permitted. In some turnpike service plazas in Ohio, overnight RV parking spaces are available for a nominal fee.

Overnight parking rules vary by state. For an overview, please select the link below.

If you have specific questions regarding rest area usage rules, please contact the state’s DOT office; don’t contact us as we cannot assist you.

Frequently Asked Questions

To learn the answer to some common questions, refer to the link below:

Rest Area Facts

The Interstate System

Watch this interesting 8-minute video to learn about the Interstate highway system.

19 thoughts on “Welcome”

  1. Thank you for existing & for creating such a thorough resource of these sometimes overlooked very important shelters for drivers.

      • I was hoping to give a huge shout out to the people that clean Getting Rest Area MP 178 Oregon
        The rest rooms were unbelievably clean and smelled great and it’s a nice perk to have small garbage containers in each one. Thanks for the hard work!!
        We travel in our trailer and we usually do not feel the same about most rest areas in Oregon.
        I hope this shout out gets to the correct people!
        Marcia Durbin

  2. I an planing to stay at a hotel very near the Maple grove area rest area. I see there is a small lake near it. Will my Mn. fishing license allow me to fish in the water in and near the rest area? Also are there any restrictions against hand held metal detecting in rest areas like the on I will visiting?

  3. ARE SOME OR ALL OPEN FOR TRAVELERS OR DO WE HAVE TO CALL EACH ONE TO GET THAT INFORMATION?

  4. Dear Administrator,
    Start a professional YouTube or Facebook channel that coincides with your travel publications. That will earn you money and lots of “free” contributions from people who travel North American highways, take photos, videos and provide information and comments on rest stops and other useful highway information.

    I have no complaints with state rest stops, just glad they exist, but their number has been decreasing over the years. I more often now use fast food and truck stops as my rest stop, and in many large truck stops you can sleep for a few hours. The biggest complaints I have with any rest stops is the racket from the diesel trucks….looking forward to a future when they are quiet electric powered. Ha.
    Thanks for your website. I travel by GPS, but still refer to maps for the “big picture”.
    Cheers

  5. Many travelers use the rest areas to break up long drives by stopping and walking for 5 to 30 minutes, getting a break, some good exercise and fresh air.

    This site would be INFINITELY more useful if you would allow visitors to post comments and photographs about the various rest areas, specifically targeting (a) Utility and amenities – meaning security, vending machines, manned welcome station and visitor center, pet walking areas, availability of potable water, cleanliness of rest rooms, etc; (b) Beauty and visual appeal (photos!), meaning do they have nice plantings, flowers, and shelters, or are they industrial-looking or right beside a sewage treatment plant?; and (c) Exercise friendliness – i.e., do they have nice paved pathways? Do you have to walk in the parking lots? Do you have to walk in the grass? Is it impossible to go walking without trudging through gullies and mud puddles? How well drained are the walking areas?

    I’ve been looking for a place to find this information, and to post my own comments of this sort for a long time.

    • That all sounds nice but how does one earn a living from it? Rely solely on advertising? Make the site a “members only” site, and charge for access and features?

      • Get setup with youtube and they pay evertime someone clicks onto one of your videos. Try “Youtube for Dummies.” It covers the whole process.

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