Toll Roads
Toll roads are in many European countries and it is a way for them to pay for their roads that they have built. In some countries they are cheap but in others they can be very expensive. The problem we have as motorhomers is that we mostly drive large vehicles that are classed as trucks and the rate is far greater than for a normal car. We try and avoid them if possible but in some places they are unavoidable. Tolls can be paid in cash and also credit card. There are also prepaid tolls and electronic tolls. Below are few of the toll roads we have travelled on. To get the cost of the tolls go to https://www.tolls.eu/european-countries
France
We avoid the toll roads in France as much as possible as they tend to be quite expensive. The speed limit on the toll roads is 130kph and the speed limit on what I call “A” road is 100kph. As our motorhome can only sit on around 95 – 100kph the advantage of going faster does not help us. The “A” roads do go through a lot of towns and villages but that is what we have come to see not a long bitumen road. The “A” roads have better views and we aren’t in a hurry most of the time anyway.
Turkey
Here they work on a prepaid system as there are no boom gates and no one to collect your money. We went to a service station showed the lady at the desk our vehicles and she supplied us with a window sticker for our car and a receipt that she stuck on the back of our passports. However every time we went through the toll stations we never registered a green light and an alarm sounded. Clyde and Anna who we were travelling with only had a green light only once. There were attendants at the other side of the toll stations but they never stopped us. We had heard that were having problems with the system and that could be the reason or they saw that we had our stickers and let us pass. At that time they were operating two types of systems and you had to go through the lane indicated with your system on it.
Portugal
We drove into Portugal from Spain and noticed electronic tolls on the roads. They had sign explaining how much they were costing on each section of road. There was nowhere to pay and no boom gates just the overhead cameras. We went to a caravan park and asked the receptionist what we needed to do. The locals either prepay and get a sticker which smart pays as they drive through or they go to a post office give the details of the car and the computer tell how much they need to pay. We asked “How do we pay ?“ “you don’t” she said the system only had the details of the vehicles in Portugal and we are not on their records. We drove through them the whole time without paying and in Holland where our motorhome is registered do not get a bill of any kind..
Serbia and Macedonia
In 2013 we drove from Holland to the north of Greece, we did this in four days as we were meeting with friends to travel in Turkey. We drove the toll roads the whole length of Serbia and many in Macedonia. We paid by credit card and I was expecting a large bill, but when I checked my statement they were very cheap, a pleasant surprise.
Italy
Driving from Italy into France along the coast road we took the toll roads as otherwise it would have meant miles of winding roads and a lot longer. They were not cheap but it was a case of having to or a long frustrating drive. The roads were great and we went through tunnel after tunnel. On later trips we used the tolls roads in the middle and in the south of Italy and they were much cheaper than in the north.
Morocco
We drove on one toll road in Morocco, it was cheap and very unused. It seems that the locals were not using it as it cost them money.
