Toll on the AP-7 between La Zenia and Los Montesinos: how does it actually work?

You can now drive hundreds of kilometres of the AP-7 from Tarragona to Alicante without paying a cent. But drive from Orihuela Costa to Torrevieja — barely ten kilometres — and there is a toll gate. In summer that costs € 5.10 per crossing. How can that be? And more usefully: what can you do about it?

Two roads, two contracts

The answer is simpler than most people assume: this is a matter of two separate concessions.

The northern part of the AP-7, between Tarragona and Alicante, was operated by Abertis. That contract expired on 31 December 2019. Since 1 January 2020 those 367 kilometres have been free — the barriers went up for good.

The stretch you drive through is a different story. The Alicante–Cartagena section was awarded on 1 December 1998 to Autopista del Sureste (Ausur) for a period of fifty years. Do the arithmetic and you arrive at 2048. There is no contract about to expire.

What exactly does it cost?

The figures below come from the official rate schedule of the Spanish Ministry of Transport, in force since 1 January 2026. They apply per toll gate, for an ordinary car.

Note that last line: there is one short section where you pay nothing at all. Between exit 754 (Carretera San Miguel–Benijófar) and exit 758 (San Miguel de Salinas–Torrevieja) the toll is zero. Worth knowing if you are coming from that direction.

The rule almost nobody knows

This is where it gets interesting for anyone living here. That same ministerial schedule contains a provision for regular users (usuarios habituales). If you meet the condition, you pay the low rate all year round — including July and August.

The conditions:

• at least 80 toll crossings in the preceding four months
• paid by Via-T or magnetic card, so the crossings are registered
• status is reassessed monthly

That second condition is the trap: cash does not count. If you drive through the gate daily but pay with coins, you never build anything up and you pay double for four months of the year.

The route at a glance

The diagram below shows where the two toll gates are, where you can leave the motorway to avoid them, and which stretch of the N-332 seizes up in summer. It is not to scale — it is an overview of the choices you face on the road.

South to north: San Pedro del Pinatar towards Torrevieja

Coming from San Pedro del Pinatar or Pilar de la Horadada heading for Torrevieja, you drive up the AP-7 until you have to make a choice. At exit 768, Dehesa de Campoamor, you can leave the motorway before the La Zenia toll gate. From there you continue along the coast on the N-332.

That saves you the toll. But the last section, between Punta Prima and Las Habaneras, is exactly where everyone who has the same idea ends up. In July and August you will regularly crawl along it: plenty of roundabouts, plenty of side roads into the urbanisations, and heavy traffic heading for the shopping centres.

And the same in reverse

Going the other way it works as a mirror image. Driving south from Torrevieja, you take the N-332 as far as Dehesa de Campoamor and join the AP-7 there — again past the toll gate. You only pay further south, or not at all if you turn off at San Pedro.

The pattern is always the same: Campoamor is the hinge. South of it you use the motorway toll-free; north of it, it costs money or time.

The free alternative — and the price you pay for it

The N-332 runs parallel to the AP-7 and is free. Many residents and almost all holidaymakers take it.

With the predictable result that it grinds to a halt in summer. Journeys that take ten minutes on the motorway can take three quarters of an hour on the N-332 in August. It also has far more junctions, roundabouts and side roads — and correspondingly more accidents than the motorway beside it.

So the calculation is not purely financial. In low season the N-332 is perfectly fine. In July and August, € 5.10 is often the cheapest way to buy half an hour.

What does this mean if you are house-hunting?

For a holiday home you use two weeks a year: very little. For anyone moving here permanently or staying for longer stretches: more than you might think.

The toll gates sit between Los Montesinos and La Zenia. In practice that means the Torrevieja–Orihuela Costa axis is cut in two. If you live in Villamartín or Playa Flamenca and work in Torrevieja, that gate sits between you and your job. If you live on the same side as your daily destinations, you will barely notice it.

That is why we always probe the daily routine when taking on a search: where will you do your shopping, which doctor, where do you exercise, where is the school. Not because the toll is a deal-breaker — it rarely is — but because it is one of the many small things that together decide whether a neighbourhood feels easy or tiring.

Will the toll ever disappear?

That is the question everyone asks, and the honest answer is: not by itself, and not soon. The concession runs to 2048.

There is a precedent, though. The Alicante ring road, also part of the AP-7, has been made temporarily free because the Ministry compensates the concession holder for it. That arrangement is extended a year at a time. The councils of Orihuela and Torrevieja have been campaigning for years to get the same treatment for the Vega Baja stretch — so far without result.

So it is not a matter of waiting for a contract to expire, but of a political decision that has not been taken. Plan on the assumption that the situation stays as it is for now.