Americans driving in Europe

The one way drop fee, likely $500+ ( on top of the rental rate itself) should be enough to dissuade you from a rental from Porto to Bordeaux

This will give you an overview of transportation options-- https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Porto/Bordeaux

IF you decide to rent a car, you will be best to equip yourself and all other possible drivers each with the International Driving Permit. It is available at any Automobile Association (AAA in the US or CAA in Canada) for around $30 and a passport type photo. This is used together with your valid driving license, you must have both, and may be requested by the car rental agency when you pick up your vehicle as well as police if you do get actually stopped by one.

Your home auto insurance will probably NOT cover you in Europe. You will have to check with your agent. They may be able to add coverage for you while you are renting the car. However, I would suggest you just take the maximum insurance offered by the renting agency. Easier in case there is any claim against you because you can just walk away from most and you don't have to handle the long distance claims process.

Most road signs are symbols, not words, so you should be able to understand them. Get a book or look on the internet for road sign and driving rules tutorials to make sure you understand the differences between home and every country you will be passing through. You will have to be very careful to not drive into restricted zones in small towns. The fines are automatic and can be high. They are issued by camera capture, not by a police officer directly, so it may be months before the ticket reaches you for payment.

Personally, I would opt for a train. Depending on which train you choose for the given route, there can be lots of stops in places having the sites you want to see. Less worries about finding fuel, finding parking, speeding tickets, and all the other things that go along with renting a car.

Driving is relatively easy, but here are some thoughts:
- Driving adds stress in the form of finding secure parking, fueling, map orientation (even with GIS), caring for the car, taking care your luggage is not visible when you make stops, obeying all traffic laws, renting the vehicle, selecting hotels that accommodate parking and navigating narrow streets.
- If you have a destination list which can only be met by driving then please devise a plan to reduce the impacts of stresses as defined above.
- If you are thinking in terms of driving being a quaint way to explore, then rethink how you best want to utilize your time.
- Public transport is an excellent method to wander about Europe and there are a number of methods to accomplish your need
- https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Porto/Bordeaux
- perhaps you may desire to create a post with a title attracting forum members who have taken a similar excursion?
Safe travels

If you tell us the things you'd like to see along the way, we can help you figure out how doable they are without a car. Perhaps it will turn out that have a car for a day or two, while you're staying at one of your desired stops, will work best. Or you may not need a car at all.

Train service is not convenient on this route; bus is the more likely option, with overnight stops along the way,. Or fly if you’d just like to get there, leaving time to see those cities and add a couple of side trips nearby.

Based on the Rome2rio link Marbleskies provided, the train looks like a bad option, with five changes of train and it looks like two changes of station within cities. It might be scenic but it would be a lot of work. It looks like more direct and slightly faster bus service (unusually), but still a long uncomfortable ride. You could drive, especially if you have an intermediate destination in mind (like the Basque country), but that dropoff charge would be steep -- see what Auto Europe shows. And, as noted above, driving can be a lot of work too.

If this were my trip, with five days between cruises, I'd plan to spend awhile in northern Portugal, perhaps with a car, then fly to Bordeaux (about 90 minutes in the air), and maybe some more time around Bordeaux before that cruise departs. Plenty to see in both areas.

There are plenty of nice places you could stop at between those locations. Driving from Porto along the north coast of Spain into France is almost all interstate. Once off the interstates the roads are rural with low speed limits. I believe a short section of the northern route has tolls, but I avoided those sections by using alternate roads. Driving itself is pretty much like driving in the U.S. You could easily make the drive in the time you have. However, as Joe said, picking up in one country and dropping off in another comes with a hefty fee. An International driving permit is required, not optional. Strictly obey the speed limits. Even 2kph over the limit could get you a ticket. In Spain, the pedestrian only areas of towns are pretty straight forward and those streets are blocked with bollards. As Marbleskies stated, keep all luggage out of sight. Rental cars in Europe tend to have smaller luggage areas than cars in the states.

If you did decide to drive, plan your route beforehand to maximize the time you have. Parking can be a problem in larger cities, but not much of an issue in smaller towns. If you know where you’re going to stop, check out public parking lots ahead of time using google maps. Mark them on Google maps so you can go straight to them when you arrive. That will save some time. Download Google maps of your route for offline use so you don’t need to use any data. Your saved places will still be there.

Edited: When Lee below says 10 hours (that is optimistic) that’s straight driving time without stopping to see anything. Stopping to see things en route, it’s easy to turn the trip into five days.

6 days? I'd fly to Minorca spend 3-4 days and then to Bordeaux. Multiple flights available each way.

But if you just want to go straight there the cheapest airfare I can find from Porto to Bordeaux is $38. It's far and away the best way to get there.

Personally, I would opt for a train.

As many people here already know, I am a huge believer in trains in Europe, but here, for this trip, I don't know that I could recommend them. Maybe buses in this area are better, but I don't have access to detailed bus schedules for this trip.

Of 10 western continental European countries I have analyzed, Portugal, Spain, and France have the worst rail network density (in km of rail per square km) of the ten. Switzerland is best with 12.2 km per 100 km². Germany is second with 12.0 km/100 km², 98.8% of Switzerland's, but far bigger. France has only 38% of Switzerland's, Portugal 29%, and Spain 25%. So, to get from Porto to Bordeaux, you have to go through the three rail networks with the worst rail density. What would take about 10 hours by car (according to ViaMichelin), by an almost direct route around the southern end of the Bay of Biscay, takes over 30 hours by train, going through Madrid, Barcelona (on the Mediterranean!) and Toulouse.

I agree with others that using a budget flight or taking the bus would be the best way to travel between Porto and Bordeaux. I haven't checked the specifics on those routes. As others have noted, renting a car and driving that route has some "issues".

When is this trip taking place?

Driving is easy. Big cities are full of traffic but in those countries not worse than American cities. Highways are easy as pie. Language isn’t an issue, just read up on the symbols used in the signs - most signage is visual because there are so many people of different language driving around Europe.
The biggest challenge is parking, many towns don’t allow cars close to the center and one way narrow streets can get confusing. By narrow, sometimes I mean barely wider than the car. Best bet in those situations is to park a little bit out of the old center and walk in, or take a bus or cab if it’s a bigger town.

In your case the drop fee will be a problem
- returning the car in a different country is expensive. If you can handle it or find a good deal, I think driving would be great on that route. If not, fly. You could rent a car and enjoy the countryside in one country, return it, and fly between the countries. You don’t need a car if you want to stay in Porto but it’s helpful for exploring the countryside and small towns.

To me, this is not a question of train or car, but a trip where a combination would be perfect. My suggestion would be:

Take the train to Spain, A Coruña or Santiago de Compostela. As mentioned the train services across the border are not that great so you might need to take a bus for a bit, but from Vigo to A Coruña the railway is in good condition.
Spend a night in the spanish town of your choice, they are both worth it. Then rent a car and drive along the coast towards France over two or three days. Return the car in San Sebastián and then take the train to Bordeaux, which is easy, local train to the border towns Irun/Hendaye from where there are TGVs to Bordeaux.

That will let you see the attractions along the way, but you are both renting the car and returning it in Spain so there will be no huge cross border rental fees. And you are cutting a bit of travel time by using fast trains where they are available.

Driving is no different there than in the US. Just get the Do not drop a car off in another country!!! We were quoted a 1000€ drop fee one time. We drove from Lisbon to Porto to Santiago de Compostela, Leon, and on through Spanish snd French countries. Beautiful but six days isn’t enough to see it well. Fly if you can visit Pays Basque before your river cruise which is up the coast. St.Jean de Luz, Bayonne etc plus villages in the foothills.

Per Laura the convoluted train schedule makes rail travel a non-starter, and the punishing one-way drop charge makes driving from point to point cost prohibitive, so the cheap one-way flight would seem to be your best option.
Consider collecting a rental car upon arrival in Bordeaux to explore some of the countryside for the 5 or 6 days of discretionary time you have available. You could even double back across the border into northern Spain if you'd like to see some of the Basque country. There are no restrictions I'm aware of regarding driving across the border as long as you return the vehicle back in Bordeaux. Driving across the border isn't a problem - it's the one-way drop charge that's the killer.
AutoEurope is our booking engine of choice. Competitive pricing coupled with clear explanations of the various insurance options make it a very convenient choice.
And yes, don't forget your International Driving Permit (IDP).

Shopper. You've got enough mileage from your post to make it from Porto to Bordeaux.

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I feel more educated now and will use your input to make a final decision. The trip is planned for July 2021, IF by then we are free to travel at all!

Keep in mind that many in here are NOT fond of cars...
To answer your question. It is not hard to drive in France. Just study the international road sign symbols before you go (most are obvious but a couple are not). And make sure you have GPS.

That being said as noted a car for crossing the boarder can be expensive.

Something to be aware of if you do decide to rent a vehicle: the default rental for many companies in Europe is a car with manual transmission. In some cases you'll need to specify an automatic if that's what you want, and they typically cost more than vehicles with manual transmission. Do be careful when booking.

My earlier post with the $500+ guesstimate of the one way rental car fee was off. Looking on expedia shows the one way fee is $1770.00 ( plus the base rental rate)

I like Badger's plan if you want a road trip across northern Spain. Train to Vigo or Santiago, rent the car, return in San Sebastian (no dropoff fee) and train to Bordeaux. Or fly to Bordeaux, rent the car and take it somewhere in southwestern France or across to the Basque region, then return it where you rented it.

This is getting to be a long thread. But I'll note that all you asked about was "good idea to rent a car and drive between." You didn't say (just for example) "We're interested in the Camino de Santiago", or "We know Rick loves San Sebastian, should we stay a few nights there?

Because all you asked was "Should we rent a mighty steel steed of independence and the American Way" (even if that is not what you meant at all!!!), this got into a discussion of travel sensibility, instead of practicality.

We had no hesitation to rent a car to drive around northern Portugal. GPS is vital, but it worked out great. We had a list of places we wanted to see, like Roman ruins and the Knights Templar castle. It happened that we returned it in Porto because we had a plane flight to Madeira, and on to Lisbon (again) for the end of our trip. Portugal is a bit out of the way, and it takes a while to get anywhere, even to Madrid by plane. We've had one or two cruise departures from Lisbon, as well as a Portugal-only vacation.

If you want to sleep in Santiago de Compostela, Bilbao, and San Sebastian, the car is a great idea. You do have to plan for parking, most likely in a commercial pay garage, since even some luxury hotels won't have enough parking for you. But those three cities are on the way to Bordeaux. (I've never driven across the Pyrenees, so I have no comments on that.) I personally don't find sitting in the car my favorite part of any trip.

If you had asked, instead, "Can we drive without hotel reservations and stop at the interesting places we find along the way?", I'd give a different answer: The controlled access highways give no sense of where you are, and you have to drive 20-30 minutes each way, off the highway to get to the lovely places you see on the tourism signs. You have to find a garage, park, and worry about your partly-hidden luggage while you visit the place. The more local roads you use to hope for discoveries, the slower will be your progress. You may have trouble using American credit cards in unattended gas stations. You may have an annoying discussion with the rental place about collision waivers and the insurance you thought you had before you left the U.S.