How to Avoid Tolls, Highways, and Ferries in Google Maps

To avoid a route type, get directions, choose driving, and open route Options before selecting a route. On a computer, open Options for toll and highway settings. On Android or iPhone/iPad, open More → Options. Use the controls shown for your trip; ferry options, labels, and availability can differ. Review the proposed road and crossing details before leaving, and follow actual signs and traffic rules over an app suggestion.^{4 2 5 6}

What does “this route includes a ferry” mean?

If you see “This route includes a ferry,” part of the proposed journey crosses water by boat. It is not a continuous road journey across a bridge or through a tunnel. Check the crossing in the route details and identify its terminals and operator before deciding to use it.

A ferry label is not a ticket, reservation, or confirmation that a sailing will run. Check whether the service carries your vehicle, its timetable and fares, and whether booking or advance arrival is required. For example, Washington State Ferries’ first-time rider guide separates route planning, vehicle reservations on selected routes, ticket purchase, and boarding. Other operators have their own rules.¹

Example: a ferry crossing or a bridge detour

Imagine a fictional trip between two towns on opposite sides of a river. One route takes your car aboard a ferry; another follows roads to a bridge farther upstream. Selecting Avoid ferries asks Maps to look for a route without the boat crossing.² If a suitable bridge route is offered, compare it and check its road conditions. If there is no suitable land connection, the setting cannot create one—reconsider the destination or verify whether a ferry trip is practical.

Where are the route options?

For computer toll and highway steps, see directions Help; Google’s helpful-features overview also names ferries. Check the controls shown for your selected device, travel mode, and trip rather than assuming identical switches everywhere.

Route-option paths, checked October 16, 2026:

• Computer Maps: Directions → driving route → Options; check Tolls and Highways and inspect any ferry option shown.
• Android or iPhone/iPad Maps: Directions → driving → More → Options; use the controls shown for the current trip.
• Maps Go: Directions → travel mode → Options below the modes, with toll, highway, and ferry options; this is a separate lightweight Android app, not standard Maps.
• Cars with Google built-in: route overview → Route options, with toll, highway, and ferry options; supported features can vary by manufacturer or region.

Other travel modes may offer different controls.

Set options on Android or iPhone/iPad

In either standard phone app, search for the destination or tap it, choose Directions, and select Driving. Then open More → Options at the top of the route view and inspect the available controls. Use the controls shown for your current route and check Android directions Help or iPhone/iPad directions Help for your platform. If a switch is missing, compare the available routes and check their roads and crossings rather than assuming an account or app fault.^{5 6 2}

Choose the desired avoidance controls where offered, return to the route, and read the route summary and road line before tapping Start. If you change travel mode or start a new trip, reopen Options and verify the selections rather than assuming they persisted. Google calls one road category Highways in English Help; a device may use Motorways or another local term. Check the displayed meaning and the road itself rather than treating translated labels as a universal legal definition.

The phone directions pages let you select an alternate route on the map. Do not assume the computer’s route-dragging gesture applies on mobile. Plan changes while parked or ask a passenger; do not manipulate a long settings list while moving.

Set options on a computer

Open Google Maps on a computer, click Directions, enter a start and destination, choose driving, and click Options. Select Tolls or Highways as needed. If a ferry option appears for your route, review it; otherwise compare the available route alternatives.

Compare the route alternatives shown. For a driving route on a computer, Google also documents clicking and holding a point on the route, then dragging it to another spot on the map. That changes the previewed road path. It is not a permanent “never use this road” instruction, and a later navigation session should be checked afresh.⁴

What do toll, highway, and ferry controls change?

Each control asks Maps to calculate a route with a named road or crossing type avoided. Avoid tolls addresses toll-road choice, not the price displayed for a toll road. Avoid highways addresses a road category in the route, not whether a road is legally suitable for your vehicle. Avoid ferries concerns a crossing in the proposed journey, not the operator’s sailing calendar or vehicle-boarding rules. These controls do not change toll obligations, road classifications, or ferry operations in the real world.

Inspect the specific route before relying on it.^{2 4 3 7}

Why is an unwanted road or crossing still shown?

First distinguish what you are looking at. Is it a gray alternative rather than the selected route? Is it a road in the preview, or an updated route after navigation started? Then verify the current travel mode, reopen Options, and inspect each selected control. Read the route details, warning labels, road names, and any crossing leg. A selected avoidance control is not a substitute for noticing that the actual proposed path still needs review.

If a toll or ferry matters financially or logistically, check the relevant operator’s current information. If a road seems private, closed, unsuitable for your vehicle, or unsafe, check official road or local-authority information and posted signs; do not follow a surprising shortcut merely because a line is blue. Traffic and map data can change between planning and travel. Google’s own safety note says to follow actual traffic regulations and signage when in doubt.

Try a displayed alternate route if it better meets your needs. If the underlying directions contain a real wrong step, use Google’s report-wrong-directions workflow on a computer where available. Google says this reporting flow is limited to some countries or regions and excludes transit. For a wrong road or other map-data problem, use the separate data-problem feedback route rather than assuming product feedback fixes the road immediately.^{8 9 4}

Avoiding tolls is not the same as seeing a toll estimate

The Avoid tolls route control asks Maps for a different road choice. A toll-price estimate helps compare a route that includes a charge. Google’s current iPhone/iPad Help says estimates are available in certain cities, can use toll-pass or non-pass rates, and consider the day, time, date, and payment method. It also says Maps does not calculate prices for congestion-based toll roads or lanes whose prices vary with traffic. Actual charges come from the toll operator, not the number in a preview.⁶

Therefore a missing price is not evidence that the road is free, and a visible estimate is not a final bill. Check the operator’s current rates, accepted payment method, pass rules, and vehicle class for a consequential trip.

Highways, motorways, and smaller motorcycles

Google’s driving directions are designed for cars and may lead to car-only roads. Its current Help specifically advises riders of motorized bicycles or motorcycles under 125cc who use driving directions to turn on Avoid tolls and Avoid highways. That is Google’s navigation guidance, not a statement that every such vehicle is prohibited on every road called a highway worldwide. Road access depends on the jurisdiction, vehicle, signage, and actual restrictions. Check the route before riding and follow local law.⁴

Google also documents a separate two-wheeler directions mode for scooters and motorcycles on mobile devices in limited locations. If that mode is available, it is not merely a car engine-profile setting. It may suggest narrow side roads, which still require judgment about suitability and legality. Do not assume it exists everywhere or that a car route with Avoid highways becomes a certified motorcycle route.¹⁰

Ferries need a separate service check

Maps Go Help and Google built-in car Help name ferry avoidance for their own products: Maps Go is a separate lightweight Android app, and Google built-in runs in supported cars; do not assume their button sequences apply to ordinary phone or browser Maps. On those surfaces, inspect the current route Options and route details; if the ferry control is not shown, compare available alternatives and verify the crossing separately.^{2 3 7}

Before committing to a crossing, check the operator’s current timetable, season, boarding location, vehicle rules, fares, reservation requirements, and disruption notices. A map route cannot serve as an operator confirmation that a sailing will run or that your vehicle has a place. For a trip where no ferry is acceptable, keep a readable land-route backup and verify it against current road conditions.¹

Route avoidance versus fuel-efficient routing

These settings answer different questions. Google documents fuel-efficient routes for select countries or regions; when enabled, Maps weighs efficiency alongside traffic, route simplicity, and road conditions. Its engine-type choices concern cars, while motorcycle eco-routing assumes a gas-powered motorcycle. The most efficient route can differ by engine type. Google also states that energy-efficient routes for EVs do not include charging stops.¹¹

Can I force Google Maps to use one road?

You can choose a displayed alternate route. On a computer, you can drag a driving route to another spot. You can also add a genuine destination that you intend to visit; see the multiple-stops guide for the supported limit and manual-order distinction. None of those actions is a documented permanent rule that forbids one exact road in future trips. Adding a stop changes the route through a real destination; it is not automatic route optimization or a guarantee of every connecting segment.

Google My Maps can draw a planning line and organize places, but it is not ordinary Maps turn-by-turn enforcement. The Maps, My Maps, and Earth comparison helps decide when a drawn project is the right artifact. If a route contains an actual map error, report the bad step or road data using Google’s supported feedback path rather than trying to force a hazardous workaround.

If Maps keeps changing the journey, use the Google Maps rerouting checks to separate a road-choice problem from an unreliable position.

Troubleshoot the route before you drive

1. Confirm the transport mode—especially driving versus region-limited two-wheeler directions.
2. Reopen Options and verify each avoidance control actually selected for this trip.
3. Check whether the displayed road-category label says highway, motorway, or another local term.
4. Read the selected route and alternatives, including road names, toll notices, and ferry legs.
5. Check toll charges or ferry service with the operator when price or boarding matters.
6. Check closures, private access, vehicle restrictions, and other consequential conditions with a road authority or operator.
7. If the map data or a turn is genuinely wrong, follow Google’s supported wrong-directions or data-problem report flow where available.
8. Follow real signs and traffic law; do not use an unsafe detour or adjust the phone while driving.

Before a long or time-critical journey, keep the destination and chosen route readable without relying on a remembered toggle. Confirm the payment method, ferry reservation, weather and closures, vehicle height/weight or access rules, and any border or local restriction that applies. A downloaded offline area can help with limited driving guidance when signal is lost, but it does not preserve live traffic or make an unavailable route option appear.

For a paper reference, use the guide to print Google Maps directions.

For adjacent planning jobs, use departure or arrival timing in the eight-feature guide when one destination has a fixed arrival, the Ask Maps guide for conversational place discovery, and the Immersive Navigation guide when the issue is the detailed active-driving display. None is a substitute for checking the route’s roads and crossings.