Tolls rise by 3.64% at the start of the year

Driving the length of the Costa del Sol on the motorway will cost close to 20 euros in high season, with Manilva residents the hardest hit as they have to «pay at the booth» up to three times on the full journey to reach the provincial capital.

As is traditional at the start of each year, drivers in Manilva woke up on 1 January to another increase in tolls on the Costa del Sol Motorway (AP-7).

The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has approved a 3.64% increase in the tariffs of the concession holder Ausol for 2026. The rise, linked to the update of the CPI (consumer price index) and the adjustment of state subsidies, disproportionately affects Manilva residents, who must pay at the Guadiaro-Estepona toll point just to leave the municipality heading east or west.

The 2026 prices (light vehicles)

The tariff structure remains divided into normal season and special season (the latter includes June, July, August, September and the 17 days of Holy Week).

For short or local journeys, the toll at the Manilva exit has also gone up, to €1.20 in low season and reaching €2.00 in high season.

Manilva, the «most penalised» municipality

Manilva residents are regularly singled out as the worst affected by this payment model. Because the municipality lies at the western end, any journey to the provincial capital requires drivers to pass through all three main tolls.

While tolls have been lifted in other provinces (such as the Alicante ring road this same year), on the Costa del Sol the only free alternative remains an overcrowded A-7 (the former N-340), with a high accident rate and turned into a congested urban corridor.

The figure: A Manilva resident who works in Málaga and uses the toll road daily could spend more than 2,600 euros a year, a figure that has prompted local petition campaigns demanding discounts similar to those on other national motorways.

A horizon with no end to the tolls

Despite constant requests from the municipal corporation and political parties for the removal of the Manilva-Estepona section, the central government maintains that lifting the tolls is unviable in the short term because of the high cost (estimated at around 2,000 million euros). It is worth remembering that Ausol’s concession on the section that directly affects our municipality (Estepona-Guadiaro) does not expire until 2054, while the Estepona-Málaga section will expire in 2046.

Until then, the people of Manilva will continue paying one of the highest per-kilometre rates in the whole of Spain, and one that rises year after year.

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