Spanish and Portuguese tolls (1 Viewer)

[Aztecman]

Hi,
I am travelling through Spain this year and trying to find out how the toll system works. What class is a 6m campervan and are the toll booths manual as well as electronic?

If electronic how is that set up before I leave the UK.

 

[BreweryDave]

In Spain they are manned as well as automatic - put card in.
In Portugal - we entered last week on the A22 from Spain. At the border, signs direct foreign vehicles to an automatic booth, a camera reads your reg plate and you feed it your card, all the subsequent tolls are just cameras on the road which you just drive past and it recognises your number and simply charges your card. Simples!
Charged on number of axles in Portugal, not sure about Spain, but cheap enough not to worry, unlike France !

 

[funflair]

Lots of good roads without using tolls though especially in a 6m camper.

Martin

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[daveinspain]

In Spain all single rear axle motorhomes are class 1, same as cars, and as said above, tolls are cheap enough to not worry about, unlike France!

 

[Aztecman]

Thanks Brewery Dave,
When you say "pit card in", is that a credit card and does it matter which type as I've read elsewhere that some cards aren't accepted in Portugal.

 

[JJ]

Please note there are toll motorways in Portugal which do NOT use the electronic system. These use a "normal' toll system of collecting a ticket on entering and then paying on exiting.

If exciting at night, the payment booth can be un-manned and so I would recommend having cash available. Some credit/debit cards don't work in the machines.

JJ

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[ukbill]

a prepaid card like caxton revolut etc,normally won't work autotolls

 

[daveinspain]

In Spain, you take a ticket from the toll booth on entering a toll section of motorway, and pay cash or credit card at the toll booth when exiting the motorway. Don´t use the toll booth lane with a round ´T´ symbol above, they are for Via-T transponder users only.

 

[gus-lopez]

If tolls are so cheap in Spain why do we have sections on the 'ghost highway ' near me that have the highest prices in the whole of Europe ?
I wouldn't bother with a toll road in spain as the autovias themselves are excellent.

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[mikebeaches]

In Spain all single rear axle motorhomes are class 1, same as cars, and as said above, tolls are cheap enough to not worry about, unlike France!

Agree entirely with daveinspain!

We couldn't believe how cheap the tolls across central Spain north-to-south were last time we used them in our 6m coachbuilt van - same price as for cars.

And the best thing from our perspective, they were mostly deserted.

And indeed, very different from France.

And in Portugal, we found there were two types of toll motorway - one exactly as BreweryDave has described, where you get your number plate photographed at the beginning of the motorway and insert your credit card. I think it a newish system installed on some motorways that were not previously tolled; and the other system is the more traditional one, where you pay as you go at a toll booth - manned or unmanned.

Oh, and I think we were using a Mastercard, but I'm sure a Visa card would have been fine.

 

[funflair]

In Spain all single rear axle motorhomes are class 1, same as cars, and as said above, tolls are cheap enough to not worry about, unlike France!

Does that include twin wheel rear axle as their blurb say max 4 wheels.

Martin

 

[mikebeaches]

If tolls are so cheap in Spain why do we have sections on the 'ghost highway ' near me that have the highest prices in the whole of Europe ?
I wouldn't bother with a toll road in spain as the autovias themselves are excellent.

There does seem to be some variance in price in particular locations. We were travelling along the Costa del Sol just before Christmas and the toll there was much more expensive.

I'm not sure where exactly you could check the tolls. I know viamichelin will do it for France, but I don't know about Spain and Portugal?

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[BreweryDave]

Thanks Brewery Dave,
When you say "pit card in", is that a credit card and does it matter which type as I've read elsewhere that some cards aren't accepted in Portugal.

There's a thing, the toll machine in Portugal wouldn't accept my Spanish debit card, had to use my uk one. The only reason I can surmise is because it recognised an English reg and therefore wanted an English card???
That said, no problem with it taking my uk bank debit card.
Assume the same with a credit card - dont have one so dont know!

Tried to pay for some goods in a shop in Portugal with Spanish card too, didn't want to know! ( was a chino though!!!) no problems with either card at restaurants and other shops inc supermarkets - so far

 

[Ivory55]

In a car and caravan Spain charges it as class 2 , in Portugal they charge it as class 3 . Which is the equivalent of a third world national debt. Be warned.

 

[daveinspain]

Does that include twin wheel rear axle as their blurb say max 4 wheels.

Martin

I don´t know, I think its based on the number of axles rather than wheels, but the automatic booths can´t tell the difference anyway!

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[Billy23]

There's a thing, the toll machine in Portugal wouldn't accept my Spanish debit card, had to use my uk one. The only reason I can surmise is because it recognised an English reg and therefore wanted an English card???
That said, no problem with it taking my uk bank debit card.
Assume the same with a credit card - dont have one so dont know!

Tried to pay for some goods in a shop in Portugal with Spanish card too, didn't want to know! ( was a chino though!!!) no problems with either card at restaurants and other shops inc supermarkets - so far

My car and MH are Spanish reg and the machine will not take a Spanish debit card, I think that it will only take a credit card not debit (Spanish).

 

[Edenside]

We have used the motorway from Valencia to Benidorm quite a few times in both a car and a 6m van based Motorhome & the Motorhome is always more expensive as I believe the tolls may also be based on height.

 

[EuroTrotters]

In Spain all the four motorhomes we have had, including our almost 9m with Bike Rack Frankia A Class.

Many routes are toll free too.

When we travel in our motorhome to Playa Montroig from Santander and Bilbao, its a small toll to Zarragoza and then free to the coast.

To Javea, we pay an additional small toll on the AP7.

But there is pressure to make the AP7 toll free through from Valencia to Alicante I hope they don't.

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