The Buc-ee stops here!

On a road trip to Texas, NATALIE KING visits this iconic fuel stop for barbecued breakfast burritos

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When you're on a road trip in the UK, a service station is a welcome sight, but let's face it, they're not the most exciting of places. While it's nice to get out of the car for a while, the prospect of a lukewarm burger or soggy sandwich, followed by a wander around WH Smith to marvel at the price of a Mars bar, is not exactly going to be a highlight of your trip.

So, while on a short road trip in Texas, I wasn't expecting much from their service station offerings. But as we pulled into Buc-ee's near Fort Worth, the rows and rows of petrol pumps and a huge beige building adorned with a smiling cartoon beaver came into sight, and I realised this was going to be very different to your average stop along the Al.

Everything is bigger in Texas, so they say, and even the humble service station has been supersized. In 2024, Buc-ee’s in Luling officially became the world’s largest convenience store at 75,000 square feet. While the branch we visited in Fort Worth wasn't quite the biggest in the world, it’s still up there in the rankings and the size of a large UK supermarket.