Driving to Spain - French Tolls

Phemo · 9 Jun 2016 at 09:42

Hi guys,

I'll soon be driving to north-eastern Spain, specifically Girona. I know that the tolls in France can be steep but according to Google Maps, avoiding all the tolls adds around 5 hours to the journey which obviously I don't want to do. I don't mind paying some tolls but I know the logical faster route can be quite expensive so I figured surely there has to be a decent route that avoids some but not all tolls.

I know some of you guys here have experience driving to the south of France so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations?

Ricochet J · 9 Jun 2016 at 09:57

I recommend you take the longer route, stop off in France, drink fine wine, eat baguette, enjoy the country, and then drive on to Spain the next day.

French country side is awesome.

geekman · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:20

My advice would be to just pay the tolls. It makes the process vastly simpler and quicker, and the price difference is never as much as it seems.

As soon as you come off the tolls, you'll be going down country roads and through little villages, so lots of speeding up, slowing down, etc etc, which will really affect your MPG. If you take the toll roads all the way, you'll be able to maintain a constant speed as there's very rarely any traffic on them. You'll get back most of the extra you spend on the tolls in fuel savings, and you'll get there in far less time.

Matt-Page · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:23

geekman said:
My advice would be to just pay the tolls. It makes the process vastly simpler and quicker, and the price difference is never as much as it seems.

As soon as you come off the tolls, you'll be going down country roads and through little villages, so lots of speeding up, slowing down, etc etc, which will really affect your MPG. If you take the toll roads all the way, you'll be able to maintain a constant speed as there's very rarely any traffic on them. You'll get back most of the extra you spend on the tolls in fuel savings, and you'll get there in far less time.

This. Drove to Barcelona last year and we tried both ways, pay the tolls.

Rainagul · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:27

Bring cash if you are using the tolls. Had enough encounters with toll machines not accepting UK cards

Skillmister · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:30

Just get one of those things that lets you through the auto tolls. Saves a fair bit of time when its busy and costs what, £20?

e: https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/ website appears to have just died in the last minute though

Jacksonn · 9 Jun 2016 at 10:35

Do the drive to southern Spain nearly every year, my suggestion. Take then tolls. Don't bother with a Sanef device. Plan it and get it all done and once.

Alibaba99 · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:09

Rainagul said:
Bring cash if you are using the tolls. Had enough encounters with toll machines not accepting UK cards

Odd, never had any issues with UK cards on our Le Mans trips since the late '00s. Only slight annoyance is the charge for using the card in another country but worth it to avoid the bulk of the queues on the way back where large numbers of Brits still haven't realised that they can pay by card.

Jez · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:12

Alibaba99 said:
Odd, never had any issues with UK cards on our Le Mans trips since the late '00s. Only slight annoyance is the charge for using the card in another country but worth it to avoid the bulk of the queues on the way back where large numbers of Brits still haven't realised that they can pay by card.

If you go out of the country regularly then consider getting some better cards, there is no reason to be paying forex charges these days

Freefaller · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:42

Just get a wireless tag (Télépéage) - makes life so much easier.

Phemo · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:47

How much do the tolls cost for that trip roughly? I've seen varying costs - from 75 euros up to 150 euros.

thewanted · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:54

Phemo said:
How much do the tolls cost for that trip roughly? I've seen varying costs - from 75 euros up to 150 euros.

Peiple recommend viamichelin.com but I found it to be horribly inaccurate. 2 weeks ago I drove from Chambery to Calais and the site said that my route would cost €140. It ended up costing €78 which is still punitive, but slightly easier to swallow.

geekman · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:56

thewanted said:
Peiple recommend viamichelin.com but I found it to be horribly inaccurate. 2 weeks ago I drove from Chambery to Calais and the site said that my route would cost €140. It ended up costing €78 which is still punitive, but slightly easier to swallow.

Stupid question I know, but did you tick the return box? It might have calculated it for both ways.

Skillmister · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:58

Jacksonn said:
Don't bother with a Sanef device

Why not? Every time we went down there would be at least 1 considerable queue we missed by having one.

thewanted · 9 Jun 2016 at 11:59

geekman said:
Stupid question I know, but did you tick the return box? It might have calculated it for both ways.

I don't remember ticking it, but if it's the default option then that could be the reason.

Jacksonn · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:09

Skillmister said:
Why not? Every time we went down there would be at least 1 considerable queue we missed by having one.

I just find the faff of having one not worth it. Never have I once got stuck in a traffic jam at a toll.. Around Paris yeah.. But that's not on tolls.

Faff of returning ect as well.

Lopéz · 9 Jun 2016 at 12:10

Whilst the idea of using side roads with lovely scenery and so on sounds romantic and in principle is right up my street, it's actually a bit of a bind in somewhere like France.

French "A" road equivalents are quite often:

Single carriageway
Generally travel through villages where you have to slow down. "Bypass" isn't really a thing in France
Littered with roundabouts
Infested with trucks which slow down to about 3mph for roundabouts
These trucks can be hard to overtake in a RHD car because other than roundabouts they barrel along at a fair pace, and also most roads are arrow straight with few corners so you really struggle to get good overtaking visibility

wez130 · 9 Jun 2016 at 15:00

Rainagul said:
Bring cash if you are using the tolls. Had enough encounters with toll machines not accepting UK cards

This, it was annoying, especially when you had cars behind you getting impatient!

We went to Barcelona via Rouen. It worked out cheaper. You'll also drive over the Millau viaduct.

#Chri5# · 9 Jun 2016 at 15:07

Jacksonn said:
I just find the faff of having one not worth it. Never have I once got stuck in a traffic jam at a toll.. Around Paris yeah.. But that's not on tolls.

Faff of returning ect as well.

It's only 6 euro/year to have one and not use it.

Born_2_Kill_83 · 9 Jun 2016 at 16:05

Phemo said:
Hi guys,

I'll soon be driving to north-eastern Spain, specifically Girona. I know that the tolls in France can be steep but according to Google Maps, avoiding all the tolls adds around 5 hours to the journey which obviously I don't want to do. I don't mind paying some tolls but I know the logical faster route can be quite expensive so I figured surely there has to be a decent route that avoids some but not all tolls.

I know some of you guys here have experience driving to the south of France so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations?

Just did this very route 5 days ago it cost 94 euros from the tunnel to Girona, I wouldn't take any other roads other than the tolls, their fast smooth and empty.

Planning a holiday weather's lovely down here atm?