Car rental pick-up in Lisbon with drop-off in Porto

These kinds of questions are best addressed on Google Maps or with the car rental agencies themselves for detailed up-to-date info--but I am sure without looking that the answers to 1 and 2 are yes. AutoEurope is a consolidator that gets excellent reviews--I always start by plugging my search in on their website.

We did the reverse. We picked up in Porto and returned in Lisbon. We used Eurocar which we rented through auto Europe.

You can pick up and drop off at train stations as well as airport. We picked up at train station in Porto as it was only two metro stops from where we were staying and the airport was much further. But we had to immediately go into city traffic which was a bit intimidating. Not sure we would not have been better off going back to airport.

Check out zestcarrental.com for best prices and options.

1. You can pick up at the airport, at a car rental office outise of airport (which is what we did), at an office in town or have car delivered to your hotel.

2. Check with Zest for the different options and locations. Zest is UK consolidator and they use local companies which have different locations and options. Because Zest has large volume, you will probably find (as we did) that it is better to book through Zest than directly with the local companies. Check it out and compare for yourself.

3. Zest has good reviews and our experience was good. Email Zest directly with your questions and they will reply quickly.

Can one only pick up the rental car at the Lisbon airport or are there other car rental places in the city itself?

There are rental places in the city, though we opted to pick up at the airport. The airport in Lisbon is only 15-20 minutes from central Lisbon. For us, traffic out of the city looked less from there than from central Lisbon.

Does one have to return the car in Porto at the airport or are there other return options in the city?

Same as above, plenty of rental locations, it will depend on what company you choose.

Car rental company recommendations (or which to avoid). I have heard Zest mentioned.

We used Avis (at the time, my company had an agreement with them that I was able to use). I have also used Europcar, a good company. Many on here also like Auto Europe, they are a broker, the rental will be among 3 or 4 companies, including Europcar and American companies.

Our experience renting a car in one place and returning in the other just involved an added fee to do so. As far as renting and returning to airport or satellite location, it might benefit you to contact the rental company directly and ask these questions of them.

We used Auto Europe for a rental thru Europcar. We went to an office in Cascais instead of Lisbon (a nice beach area for a day trip). For Porto, the train station Campanha. Our trip was Porto to Lisbon.