If you’ve ever wondered just how wild a Buc-ee’s road trip can get, Texas is the place to find out.
This route takes you from the early days of the famous beaver brand to enormous travel centers that have broken records and helped turn a Texas gas station into a road trip icon.
Along the way, you’ll find surprising Buc-ee’s history, supersized buildings, unusual attractions, and plenty of reasons to spend more time at a gas station than you ever planned.
Some stops played a huge role in the company’s story, while others became famous for features you definitely won’t find at your average roadside convenience store.
So grab your Beaver Nuggets, clear some room in the car for souvenirs, and keep reading to see which Buc-ee’s stops deserve a spot on the ultimate Texas route.
1. Buc-ee’s Clute — The Original
Buc-ee’s in Clute, Texas, at 899 Oyster Creek Drive, is a seriously fun stop near the Gulf Coast, about 15 minutes from the beaches of Surfside Beach and roughly 55 minutes from Houston.
Clute is a big deal in Buc-ee’s history because the chain opened its first store here in 1982.
Founder Arch “Beaver” Aplin III and co-founder Don Wasek started the business as a much smaller convenience store than the massive travel centers you see today.
The original Clute store became famous for its beaver mascot and spotless bathrooms, and its success helped Buc-ee’s grow from a local Brazoria County business into a Texas road-trip icon with locations across multiple states.
Stopping in Clute gives you something most Buc-ee’s locations cannot offer: the chance to visit the town where the whole Buc-ee’s story began.
2. Buc-ee’s Katy — The World-Record Car Wash
From Buc-ee’s humble Clute roots, head about 1 hour and 15 minutes to 27700 Katy Freeway in Katy, where the chain went seriously supersized with a roughly 56,000-square-foot travel center just 30 minutes from Houston.
The Katy Buc-ee’s opened in 2017 and grabbed headlines for its enormous car wash, a 255-foot-long tunnel that Guinness World Records recognized as the world’s longest car wash.
Your car spends about five minutes traveling through the conveyor-powered tunnel, passing colorful brushes, spinning scrubbers, soap sprayers, and powerful dryers before rolling out the other side.
That record-breaking wash makes Katy much more than another Buc-ee’s fuel stop, and it’s a wonderfully over-the-top follow-up to Clute, showing just how far the little Texas chain had grown in 35 years.
3. Buc-ee’s Luling — The Biggest
Once you’ve checked out Katy’s record-breaking car wash, point the car toward Luling for the next Buc-ee’s stop, about 1 hour and 35 minutes away.
Buc-ee’s opened a massive new store at 10070 I-10 in June 2024, replacing the Luling’s much smaller location that had served travelers since 2003.
The new Luling Buc-ee’s covers more than 75,000 square feet, making it the largest Buc-ee’s in Texas when it opened and a dramatic upgrade from the original location.
This stop also has a fun connection to Buc-ee’s expansion beyond Texas, because the original Luling store helped inspire the giant travel-center format the company later rolled out across the South.
You’re also in serious barbecue country here, so after checking out this supersized Buc-ee’s, swing through downtown Luling for the famous smoked meats at City Market, which has been serving brisket, ribs, and sausage since 1958.
4. Buc-ee’s New Braunfels — The Former World’s-Largest
From Luling’s supersized Buc-ee’s, continue about 40 minutes to 2760 I-35 North in New Braunfels, where another giant beaver-themed stop waits between San Antonio and Austin.
The New Braunfels Buc-ee’s opened in 2012 with about 68,000 square feet of space, and it held the title of world’s largest convenience store until the 74,707-square-foot Buc-ee’s in Sevierville, Tennessee, opened in 2023.
Its size made national headlines and helped establish the mega-sized Buc-ee’s formula, turning what could have been a quick gas stop into a destination that can handle huge crowds of I-35 road trippers.
You’re also just a few minutes from New Braunfels favorites like the spring-fed Comal River and Schlitterbahn Waterpark, so this Buc-ee’s makes an easy snack-and-fuel stop before tubing, swimming, or hitting the water slides.
5. Buc-ee’s Terrell — Dfw-Area’s First Ever
After seeing one of Buc-ee’s former size champions in New Braunfels, continue your road trip for around 4 hours to Terrell.
Here you’ll find Buc-ee’s at 506 W. I-20, about 35 minutes from downtown Dallas and right along one of the main routes toward East Texas.
Opened in 2015, this roughly 60,000-square-foot location was Buc-ee’s first travel center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, bringing the giant roadside format to North Texas for the first time.
Terrell also stands out for its huge fueling setup, with more than 80 fueling positions ready for the steady stream of drivers traveling along busy Interstate 20.
Once you’ve fueled up, explore Terrell and visit the No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum at Terrell Municipal Airport and learn how thousands of British Royal Air Force cadets trained here during World War II.
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