Interstate Exit Guide

We've spent the last 13 months creating a guide to interstate exits for you. It is a rather crazy project in scope but it's well worth it for us. Recently, we were traveling I-8 in 116 degree weather. We were wondering about gas fill ups between Yuma, AZ and the San Diego metro area. Using our interstate exit guide, we could check exits and see what had what. We learned there is a decent gap in services between El Centro, CA and San Diego, CA. Only a few places to fuel up between there and the long hot climb over the mountains.

We made it easy to find hotels closest to a particular exit. We also added gas stations, restaurants, repair shops, common chain stores and any other place we could find in the phone books that is close to that exit. We tried to indicate the direction from the exit that the business was located as well. But always go by the signs on the exit ramps first, in case our GPS data was wrong.

How do you access the internet as you travel to use this information? There are many options. You can research in advance, the night before, from wireless access at restaurants and truck stops or from cellular internet connections as you drive. It is getting easier and easier to find the web on the road.

Another benefit is in this scenario. You find the hotels at the upcoming exit. You can then use AllStays to find the hotels, call direct and see if they have rooms. You can try getting a rate direct by phone, you can walk-in or book online. If you are not chain specific, you may look at all the hotels by the exit and get an idea of the price ranges before contacting them. Many times the rates will be different for each booking option. I've gotten much better rates sitting in the parking lot of a chain motel than walking through the door when they think you are desperate and not likely to drive down the road.

We will keep adding data to this interstate guide to make it more useful, such as links to the official locations so you can have the phone number and addresses of the various places.