Service station

[Desmond]

In England at points along the motorway we have service stations. What would they be in Spain as in this...


There is the service station

[poli]

gasolinera

A full service place with food establishments and travel goods stores probably has a different name which I don't know.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Poli is right; the most common name is "gasolinera".
Depending on the region, it can be "gasolinería".
And the more formal name is "estación de servicio", which is not widely used.

[poli]

I don't know the word for rest stop in Spanish. These are gas stations along major highways with shops and fast food establishments and bathrooms. A direct translation is parada de descanso, but I am not sure that's the term you would see on the autopista/autovía.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

They're all "gasolineras"/"gasolinerías" in Mexico. They're usually always accompanied by a convenience store and bathrooms (in the cities too). Some road ones have small food businesses and showers, and big yards for trucks.

[Sancho Panther]

It's of no significance at all, I do know that but I can never quite get my head around why our former colonials insist on calling the lavatory (toilet, W.C. etc.) the bathroom, where am I'm 99% certain that facilities offered therein do not include a bath at all!

I recall as a child in the early days of TV seeing programmes like "Dragnet", "Dr Kildare", "I Love Lucy" etc. etc. hearing someone in a burger-joint say "Junior's just gone to the bathroom" and thinking "You can have a bath in a snack-bar in the US?. Amazing!".