Euro toll roads - Information please

got some trips abroad plnned for this spring/summer going to france, belgium and holland and wondered how whilst route planning do i tell if a road is a toll road? and how much are the tolls usually for motorcycles?

i apologise for my ignorance but i'm a bit of a novice traveller in europe....

Motorways in France, Italy and Spain are tolled. You must buy a vignette to use the motorways in Switzerland, but it is not necessary if you use national roads.

thanks for the quick reply

the motorways in europe are they the "E" routes??

and are the tolls expensive for bikes???

Yes. By-and-large, mainland European motorways have an E prefix. They may well also show their local country code, like M1 in the UK and, say A26 in France.

If you use the ViaMichelin website to plot your route, you can set it to give you various alternatives. One of the options is motorways, on a motorbike, in pounds, including tolls and fuel costs.

It is reasonably accurate. Some people think them expensive. Others think them dull. Others think them expensive and dull. whist, others think them good value and quick. Make your own mind up.

Have fun.

Wapping said:

Yes. By-and-large, mainland European motorways have an E prefix. .

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True, by and large, but not all E routes are toll roads, ndeed, not all are even dual carriageway.
There is a mape of the French autoroutes here

Toll

My Twopennorth.
We did 4.5K miles round Europe last Sept/ Oct/Nov and only paid one toll
Millau bridge [had to be done ]
Set the Sat nav to exclude toll roads and you will go along some of the best roads in Europe
Don't forget, once you are out of the big cities there's plenty of traffic free roads with
outstanding views plus nice little villages with Fantastic Patisseries, Chocolatiers and local produce shops

Hi Maver,

All the above is true.

To sum it up:

(a) Mainland Europe is a great place to go touring.

(b) Many of the best roads lie off the motorways, just as they do in the UK. That being said, motorways have their uses. They get you quickly from A to B and can cut out some major towns and cities. The French, being sensible, often make their toll motorways free, if used only as a by-pass for a few junctions.

(c) Whilst not all French motorways are toll, it's a reasonably safe assumption that many of them are. Similarly, it's a pretty good rule of thumb that Continental motorways have the E prefix, alongside the 'normal' host country's designation. For instance, in France the big motorway to the south is the A26 / E17.

(d) Whilst not cheap, the motorways are not prohibitively expensive for a motorbike. Again, you get what you pay for. The road surfaces are pretty good and the service stations / food halls / pull-off areas are often of a tidy standard.

(e) The ViaMichelin and / or even a pretty basic GPS will give you routing directions, missing out motorways and / or toll roads. Some will give you the total cost of the journey, including separate fuel and toll calculations. However, in my view at least, nothing beats looking at a couple of good maps to plot a day's (or weeks' of) riding.

Here's a link to the ViaMichelin website: http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin/int/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm

and a link to my advice on maps for France: http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104516

(f) Lots of good roads in France and Belgium. Holland, I am ambivalent about. Flat, boring, worryingly tidy, inventors of the speed camera and lovers of caravans. All a bit too much for me.

(g) One last tip. France is a big place, roughly twice the size of the UK. It's easy, with our maps, to think it is about the same scale as the UK. Places are often further apart than they might seem.

Get a feel for the distances and compare them with similar mileages in the UK. For instance, Norwich to Newcastle (via motorway) is 300 miles. Norwich to Penzance is 440 miles and Norwich to Inverness is 630 miles, all via motorway. If you would baulk at doing runs this long in a day, in the UK, it becomes no easier / quicker over the Channel. If you come off the motorways, riding down the nicer N and D roads (like our A and B roads) your average speed will fall, quite dramatically. Lob in fuel stops, pee breaks, fag attacks, getting lost (a big part of the fun) and the day will vanish.

(h) Have a great time.

Aidan1150 said:

Motorways in France, Italy and Spain are tolled.

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Less than 50% of the Spanish motorways are toll roads, and you can tell the status from the road number. Autovias (such as the A-7) are free whilst autopistes (such as the AP-7) are toll roads.

Unlike the French toll roads which have lower rates for bikes, the charges for bikes on Spanish toll roads are the same as cars which makes them extremely expensive.

Tim

If you want to get through Europe fast e.g. to get a ferry, toll roads are worth using. They're quite cheap for a bike IMHO.

Unless I have to do uber-distance, I normally route via 'green' routes on viamichelin.com.

In France the toll roads are free if there is no N (National) road alternative to travel on.
Toll road charges for bikes are just under half the charge for a car.

.

If you're travelling across France, motorways can save a lot of time and some of them (especially round these parts) are very scenic. They are marked on the maps as two red lines with a yellow band in the centre for toll roads, and two red lines with a white central band for non-toll. However as someone said, there are sections of the toll roads (marked 'peage' on French signposts, which are free.
See the pic below. The A57 autoroute from Toulon towards us, is free initially, then just after Cuers (directly above the aeroplane icon), you'll see the motorway turn to yellow from white and there a black line across it. That's the toll barrier. Some of them can be expensive too, but you can figure out the charges, on either the viamichelin site, or on the SANEF or Escota regional motorway sites. Any specific questions, feel free to ping me.

Bon route.../Rob

Just make sure if on a bike you go to a manned toll booth to pay as the automatic credit card ones do not know you are a bike and you will pay the car fee.

I'm not sure if its a scam but the bike signs at the toll booths seam to direct you to the credit card ones so you pay double. (the car fee)

Jinxit said:

Just make sure if on a bike you go to a manned toll booth to pay as the automatic credit card ones do not know you are a bike and you will pay the car fee.

I'm not sure if its a scam but the bike signs at the toll booths seam to direct you to the credit card ones so you pay double. (the car fee)

Click to expand...

good tip

franco said:

If you're travelling across France, motorways can save a lot of time and some of them (especially round these parts) are very scenic. They are marked on the maps as two red lines with a yellow band in the centre for toll roads, and two red lines with a white central band for non-toll. However as someone said, there are sections of the toll roads (marked 'peage' on French signposts, which are free.
See the pic below. The A57 autoroute from Toulon towards us, is free initially, then just after Cuers (directly above the aeroplane icon), you'll see the motorway turn to yellow from white and there a black line across it. That's the toll barrier. Some of them can be expensive too, but you can figure out the charges, on either the viamichelin site, or on the SANEF or Escota regional motorway sites. Any specific questions, feel free to ping me.

Bon route.../Rob

Click to expand...

That's an excellent example of all the different road types, a good explanation of the French toll system and how to spot the toll sections. All on one little cut out map for a (nice) bit of France. Michelin maps are excellent.

In it you can see all the Michelin map colours and road types. Also, to the right hand side, the shaded green 'scenic' route across the Col de Babaou, with its suggested view point, probably with a suitable lay-by or pull off area. What a great place France is.

Any mods viewing, I suggest it's made a sticky. Good one, Franco.

Jinxit said:

Just make sure if on a bike you go to a manned toll booth to pay as the automatic credit card ones do not know you are a bike and you will pay the car fee.

I'm not sure if its a scam but the bike signs at the toll booths seam to direct you to the credit card ones so you pay double. (the car fee)

Click to expand...

It's not a scam at all. The signs tell the truth, that assorted motor vehicles can use the lane, if they chose to.

The same signs, also indicate if it is a credit card (CB or a credit card like symbol) or automated cash bucket (both unmanned) and, obviously, set to the car rate, or car drivers would simply pay a motorbike rate.

Somewhere on the overhead signs there will be a sign with a little man with his hand out. These are the manned booths, often available for use by all and any vehicles, so the queue might be a bit longer at busy times. Again, most of these will always take cash or credit cards, the signs will tell you.

Some countryside peage exits are only fully automatic, so bikes will, inevitably, pay the flat motor vehicle rate. OK, it's a charge...but it won't be life altering. One half litre of beer less in the evening, perhaps. Anyway, you can get several bikes through at once, so it's possible to make a profit of a few euro.

The bigger problem on these, out in the sticks exits, is not the charge but getting the barrier to detect the presence of a motorbike, to even turn the ticket machine on. They are triggered by an induction loop, set in the ground. Even the mighty GS isn't quite metallic enough to set it off, sometimes.

A quick warning - non-toll sections of motorway in France usually have a speed limit of 110 Kph, not 130. This includes the bits at each end after the péages.

Also on tolled bridges (don't know about Millau, never been across it ) bikes go free by using the last booth (unmanned) on the right which has a width restriction to stop cars using it. Just drive straight through.

And look out for plod in villages as you pass through.

The speed limit is 50k and there is often not posted.

The start of the village is indicated by the village name sign and that's where the speed limit starts..

The end of the village is indicated by the village name sign with a diagonal red stripe through it and thus the end of the speed limit.

Some people have been known to be caught out by this

selmeston said:

Also on tolled bridges (don't know about Millau, never been across it ) bikes go free by using the last booth (unmanned) on the right which has a width restriction to stop cars using it. Just drive straight through.

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The Millau bridge is tolled for bikes but worth every penny. Some cheapskate northerner posted a method of avoiding the tolls and saving a few pence. Thereby tarring us all as cnuts in the eyes of the locals.

It's a good tip about the toll bridges, sometimes being free for bikes, in the far right lane.

It's often worth keeping to the right if there are a bunch of you, anyway, as it's easier to stop and wait for your chums. Sometimes also a bit safer than the diagonal ride of death, left to right, across the toll booth exits, with Mr Plus Vite Paris Rep in his Renault, or Jacques, in his 32 tonner, doing their best to squash you, whilst your mates laugh....

Merci mon pote

Wapping said:

That's an excellent example of all the different road types, a good explanation of the French toll system and how to spot the toll sections. All on one little cut out map for a (nice) bit of France. Michelin maps are excellent.

In it you can see all the Michelin map colours and road types. Also, to the right hand side, the shaded green 'scenic' route across the Col de Babaou, with its suggested view point, probably with a suitable lay-by or pull off area. What a great place France is.

Any mods viewing, I suggest it's made a sticky. Good one, Franco.

Click to expand...

If you'd been able to see slightly to the right of the previous map, the road continues west to St Tropez. As Wapping pointed out, following the green roads gives some fantastic biking. This is the map further to the right (copyright Michelin) which shows the location of the Col du Canadel, between St Tropez airport and the sea.
This is a photo from the road at the top of the Col. Nice run, and spectacular views if you avoid the over-developed coastal part (which isn't green on the map)

Oops

That should read "EAST to St Tropez"....I don't have a GPS