Maidstone Services

Maidstone Services
Maidstone Services is a Motorway Services Area situated along the M20 in England, just south of the town of Maidstone. You can see what Maidstone Services looks like on Google Streetview.

Maidstone Services on Google Streetview

It is the only Services along the M20 between Dover and the M25 Ring surrounding Greater London. It is located at Exit 8 (which is huge roundabout) on the Northern side of the motorway. Many European cars (and some truckers, but there is not a lot of space for trucker, which would rather stops at the 'trucker Services in Ashford') stops at this Services which offers Restaurants area and Gasoline. The negative side is that it welcomes traffic going both ways (towards as well as from London). You simply need to ask around or show a sign just in case.

You can therefore catch a ride going into The Channel Tunnel which is 20 miles South or all the way to Dover crossing with the ferry.

When Frida and a friend were at Maidstone, it seemed more people going towards the Channel than going towards London were stopping there to get some food in the restaurant. If you are looking for a lift across the water, go in front of the restaurant and don't be shy to ask people for a lift.

Ashford Services
>> Ashford services now has a new services for cars as well. However, somewhatofftheway had trouble hitching from both the truck and the car services to Dover on a rainy day in June 2009 and had much better luck on the roundabout junction itself, where there is just about place for cars heading onto the M20 to stop. Allegedly, Ashford Services are owned by Polish landlords, so you might possibly receive a warm welcome there if you're Polish or from somewhere around that region.

>> We were hitchhiking for charity (Munich!!) and were therefore in a huge rush to get to Dover before nightfall. The only problem was that Ashford seemed very tedious to get out of! We found Ashford Services very difficult and we could not be bothered with the sheer hassle. Everyone seemed to be heading north and the staff at the petrol station seemed very bitter towards us. We even tried to walk part of the Motorway (lay-by) in desperation and got a massive bollocking off the police!

Luckily we found a sneaky and cunning way to get to Dover which I highly recommend (we owe everything to Google Maps for this!). Exit Ashford Services and turn right on the roundabout, walk down the road for one minute and then turn left down Ashford Road. Continue to walk along Ashford Road for about ten minutes until you reach Sandling Road which will take you all the way down to a reasonable remote train station! This train station contains a pay-on-the-train system where you pay a little bit of your fare (we paid 20p) and the machine gives you your ticket and expects you to pay the rest when the conductor sees you - which he did not!! 1p fare from Ashford to Dover anyone!?

At the Ashford Services the guard kicked us off. That was in June 2011. Maybe he will soon not work there anymore, maybe he will continue to make life harder for hitchhikers. I will in future avoid this gas station and stick with Maidstone.

Links

 * Maidstone services - Motorway Services Online