Hi, I'm trying to figure out a good option of doing this is a day trip. I've been doing a tremendous amount of research and I keep falling short. The easiest way I figured I could do this was to rent a car for the day. But after reviewing the car rental agencies I saw nothing but bad reviews and lots of phony charges. Also, I would need to rent an automatic so that ends up being close to $200 for the day (not including gas). I've done an extensive search for tour groups that do the trip and there are lots of options. But what I find common with all of them is that they 1. leave around 8 or 9 am (I prefer to get an earlier start), 2. they spend maybe 2.5 hours in Santiago, 3. they all end up going to another town (Valenco do Minho), which does look pretty but I'd rather spend the extra time in Santiago.
Public transport is out of the question. The bus companies that I've seen leave too late. Doing it by train also makes no sense since it leaves me in the city at around 2 pm or something like that.
Is there really no tour that only goes to Santiago?