Analysis Paralysis - Rental Car Help Please!

When we rented a car in Portugal, we used AutoEurope and the car was Europcar. We picked our car up when leaving Porto and dropped it off in Cascais, Europcar was across the street from the train station. We then caught the train back to Lisbon. We were happy with the service and the car.

Edit to add: The rental car should come with a transponder for the toll roads so you don't need to worry about them. The amount for the tolls will just be deducted from the deposit you leave to cover them. I love the toll roads, they are really nice. To buy gas, you can just drive on an off ramp, get your gas, use the bathroom, buy snacks and get right back on. Kinda like rest stops in the US, but with a gas station and convenience store.

My brother had a very bad experience in Lisbon with Sixt rental car. Refused to rent him the car he had the prepaid reservation on, refused to refund money because they claimed he was a "no show." A very expensive and frustrating lesson for him. Make sure the name on your car reservation matches your drivers license (not your passport). Difference was Charles and Chuck.

Not certain why people would say renting a car is a gamble or a hassle other than maybe they’ve never rented. To rent or not to rent is a personal preference and may relate to comfort level driving in a foreign country, dealing with tolls, or finding petrol stations. Rent from a major company like Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, etc. Their cars will be newer, probably not more than a year old. You can always purchase roadside assistance if it isn’t already included (in case you get a flat, etc.). The major car rental companies will give you a number or card in the event the vehicle just stops working. Other than driving in cities, that we try to avoid, the only real hassle could be parking. I’ve been renting through Enterprise for overseas trip the past few years.

My preference is to rent a car because we go to many places not well served by public transportation, or, may not be easy to get to using public transportation. To minimize any stress, we look for lodging that has on-site parking and easy to get to when entering town. If it’s in a city, it might not be in the historic center, but in a good location and close to it. I always look up parking lots and bookmark them to Google maps. That way I can go straight to them and not wander aimlessly looking for lots. Most small towns have free lots.

In Portugal there are many toll roads. Some are electronic collection only while for others you still need to get a ticket. The link is to the Portugal tolls page so you can familiarize yourself with its system.

I can’t help with renting from Lisbon since on our September 2023 trip we rented from Madrid. You can look at Google maps to determine (based on your route) whether you’d need to go through Lisbon. If heading north, you wouldn’t.

The last time I had a rental car just stop working was in 1994 when an ignition switch failed in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. I had a restaurant worker verify what was wrong so he could explain to the rental company what was going on since he was a native speaker and could better explain the situation. Even though it was a Sunday evening the rental company had a new car to us within a couple hours.

I used Avis, since I used them for business at the time, had status, the company contract also got me some add-ons. If I were to go back, I would likely start with Auto Europe, but I like to go direct to Europcar as well.

As long as you stick with a name brand agency, you should be fine, but you can't account for the odd horror story.

Using the airports work well, since they are easily connected to the city center. I think we used Uber to get to and from in both Lisbon and Porto, though there are several public transport options.

Lisbon airport to Evora is an easy drive, basically you get on the main bridge heading out of Lisbon to the East, and on your way. Cascais looks to require going through Lisbon or around on what to look like some winding roads.

If you think you will be on tollways (likely) get the offered transponder for tolls, just makes it so much easier.

People only post about bad experiences. If you rent a car and all goes fine there’s really nothing of interest to say. I’ve rented in various places and never had any serious issues.

About 8 years ago I rented through Avis at Lisbon airport and it was horrendous. Huge queues at the desk then even more waiting around in a multi story car park. They seemed to be waiting for cars to be returned before they were able to send them out again. Some people who needed a bigger car had been there for hours and tempers were definitely fraying. That was a long time ago though and once I got the car it was fine.

If you can get a 1 way rental from Cascais that would be easier than driving out of Lisbon airport.

Zestcarrental.com. The website is easy to use. Just input your city/airport pickup date and your city/airport drop-off date. You can then compare the different companies, cars and prices.

Whenever we rent a car (domestic or international), we use always use AutoSlash.com

Not only are they a broker/aggregator but once you rent a car with them you can select 'Track My Rental' and they keep looking for a cheaper vehicle (based on your requirements). In the 5 years we've been using them, they've always found a less expensive vehicle for us than we've originally booked. We've never had any issues with any of the companies they've referred us to, and whenever in the booking process we have questions, their customer service has been great! LOL knock on wood that never changes, but so far they've really been great.

Thank you all - lots of good information here and definitely helps in my search and decision!

I used Avis last time I was there and had a great experience. Originally booked an economy manual transmission but since they saw I was from Canada and they were so busy, they asked if I wanted a beautiful brand new automatic suv instead for same price. They were having to turn people away as they had no more cars available and no one wanted an automatic, so win win for both of us. Was super quick and hassle free.

We rented a car from Sixt at Lisbon Airport. Do not do this. After waiting a half hour in their line, then the agent typing in all our information from passports, credit cards, drivers licenses, etc, they decided that we were two hours late and they did not have a car for us. They want you to pick up the car within 1 hour of the time you specify, which is ridiculous. We had not paid ahead of time, so refund was not an issue but I have heard from other forums that getting a refund from them is difficult. Please read reviews of Sixt elsewhere before you decide to use them in Lisbon.

I've heard lots of bad things about Sixt, but I can second the recommendation for using Zest to find a rental. I ended up booking through VisaCar using Zest. The car had some side-panel damage already, but otherwise was in perfect condition. I dropped the car off last Wednesday (saved $20 by dropping it directly at the off-airport rental site in Lisbon). They did such a cursory examination at drop-off that I wondered if there was going to be some other process to go through - it actually amounted to the guy asking me if anything had happened, a glance at the car, and I was on my way. I had stressed about this quite a bit. I don't usually rent cars in Europe, but this was completely painless.

Other than some occasional bad experiences (which is far more than what you will encounter in USA but not much different than what a typical American encounters in Europe elsewhere). Sticking to reputable rental company may mitigate (but not eliminate) hassles.

Buy solid insurance (need to fully educate oneself about details), make sure you have working transponder, can handle parking rules and are not worried about some risk of car break-ins to steal luggage.

After help from this forum and elsewhere, we ended up using private car+driver for day long transfer in very comfortable WiFi enabled car from Lisbon to Porto with many stops of different durations per our likings.

There are plenty of choices. We went with recommendation of Fernando Batista of PortugueseChaueffeur.com

Our neighbors and cousins have used that family business also