Spain's most expensive tolls cost eight times more than cheapest

Toll fees are set by the franchise companies which maintain and repair the roads out of the funds amassed from drivers, but some are so prohibitive that the system does not work as those travelling long distances avoid them and opt for slower back roads instead.

As an example, from the northern border of the province of Alicante to the airport near the south, tolls come in at €15 each way, or €30 return – yet it costs around €10 each way or €20 return in petrol.

Yet, despite this AP-7 route costing 50% more in tolls than in fuel, it is still not the most expensive in Spain.

This dubious honour goes to the Cadi tunnel, to the north-west of the province of Barcelona and just before the Pyrénées, which costs 39 cents per kilometre to travel through – but at a distance of just over five kilometres, it only comes in at €1.96.

Some way behind but still pricey in terms of cost per kilometre – 25 cents – is the Vallvidrera tunnel through the Collserola mountain range heading west out of Barcelona city, but again, at just over 2.5 kilometres, it only costs 63 cents to use.

It is largely the case with the most expensive toll routes that they are very short – and many of them are in the province of Barcelona, including the Sant Cugat to Manresa stretch (24 cents per kilometre), the Artxanda tunnel (23 cents per kilometre) and the Castelldefels to El Vendrell road which, at 21 cents a kilometre, costs the same as the satellite motorway between the Madrid ringroad and Barajas airport.

Still, the AP-6 between Guadarrama (Madrid) and Adanero (Ávila province) costs 17 cents per kilometre and is 60 kilometres long, meaning the full stretch will set drivers back €10.20.

And the 24.5-kilometre AP-46 motorway from Alto Pedrizas (Málaga province) to Málaga city costs €4.41, or 0.18 cents per kilometre.

Joint ninth, making up the top 10, are the AP-66 from Campomanes (Asturias) to Virgen del Camino (León province), a 78-kilometre stretch costing €12.48, and the Radial 5 (R-5) between Navalcarnero (Greater Madrid region) and Madrid city, where the 31.3-kilometre journey costs €5 – both of these coming in at 16 cents per kilometre.

The cheapest toll motorway in Spain is in the province of Pontevedra, Galicia, between Bayona and Vigo where, at just five cents a kilometre, the 25-kilometre stretch costs a mere €1.25.

Three others cost just seven cents a kilometre – the Larraskitu to Santurtzi motorway in the Basque Country, the A Carolla to Carballo route in Galicia and the Sevilla-Cádiz road in Andalucía, whilst the AP-36 motorway from Ocaña (Toledo province) to La Roda (Albacete province) costs eight cents a kilometre, or €11.76 for 147 kilometres.

Of varying lengths and at nine cents a kilometre are the Ferrol-Tuy motorway in the province of A Coruña, Galicia; the stretch from Barcelona to the Girona-province border French-Spanish border town of La Jonquera and the Montgat to Palafolls C-32 in the province of Barcelona.

The AP-7 from Alicante to Cartagena and the Tudela (Navarra) to Irurzun (Basque Country) motorways cost 10 cents a kilometre.

Normally, it is impossible to get through a toll route without paying as the barrier does not rise until payment is received, although the temptation is there for drivers of low-slung sports cars who can slip underneath it.

If they do, they will almost certainly be caught on CCTV and will face a fine of up to €200.

Some motorway toll fees vary by season, day of the week or even time of day, with franchises tending to charge more at peak time, but overall the average toll route in Spain costs 14 cents per kilometre to use.

Several toll routes will become free of charge to use in the next few years when their franchise contracts expire – these include the AP-7 Alicante-Silla (Valencia) and from Castellón to Tarragona, which will become toll-free from January 1, 2020, plus the AP-4 from Sevilla to Cádiz and the AP-1 from Armiñón to Burgos.