My friend and I will be renting a car after spending two days in Porto. Do you recommend we go to the airport to rent a car? That seems out of the way, north, since we will be traveling south to the Algarve area. We will be dropping the car off in Lisbon. Should we rent from somewhere in the city or take a train to a small town and rent from there. In the past, when traveling, picking up and dropping off the car, have always been the most nerve wracking days. I appreciate help to make it go smoothly.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
1214 posts
Go to ZestCarRental.com and punch in your dates and try different pickup and drop off locations (e.g. downtown office, airport or delivered to your hotel).
Zest is a broker and deals with numerous local rental companies. Any additional local charge for the pickup and drop-off location is clearly stated. Sometimes, it is cheaper to pick up at a downtown office because that is where that company stores its rental cars and there will be extra charge when the vehicle has to be delivered to the airport. Some places like Faro, it is cheaper to pick up at the airport because that is where a company stores its cars. Sometimes, it may be worth it to pay for the vehicle to be delivered to your hotel so that you do not have to incur the time and taxi cost of traveling back to the airport or an out of the way downtown office to pick up the rental car.
Zest is a UK company and they do a lot of business in Portugal because it is a popular destination for Brits. I actually found Zest prices to be cheaper than booking direct with the Portuguese rental company. If you have any questions, email Zest and they will respond in a few hours, depending upon the time zone.
Posted by
WA USA
1107 posts
We were in the same situation and decided to pick up a car from Campaha Railway station which is outside of the historical area. Our car was from Europcar but I believe Avis is also located there. We went thru Autoeurope since we were able to get a better deal with complete coverage then directly thru Europcar. The location is a small office so make sure to reserve ahead of time.
It was my husband's first time in Europe and it had been a few years since he drove a stick shift. Even then, it was manageable and not too bad.
In our case, we took a quick train ride from Sao Bento Railway station to Campanha ~5 minutes. Sao Bento is a beautiful train station with gorgeous tile work. And the quick train ride goes over the river with awesome views. I think it's a perfect way to say goodbye to Porto. But I'm sure there are other easy ways to get from your hotel to the car rental location.
Posted by
OP
9 posts
Thank you! I appreciate both replies. The train station would be a good location to rent. I will keep that in mind.
I have never asked a rental car company to bring a car to the hotel. Sounds amazing, but maybe it is only if you stay in four star hotels. I'm more in the midrange budget.
Thanks!
Posted by
Toronto, Canada
21 posts
We just came back from Lisbon yesterday after spending 3 days in Lisbon and 3 days in Porto. After the 3 days in Porto we rented a car from Avis at the Campanha railway station. No need to rent a car in Porto so we just picked it up on our way out and used it to drive around northern Portugal. The first few minutes are a little tricky in navigating the streets but once on the main A level routes it was fine. A few words about driving in Portugal:
The A series highways are awesome - smooth, great shape, not crowded and a breeze to drive on. I would drive them again any day.
I used Google Maps on my phone- super helpful for navigation especially after leaving the highway and driving on minor roads.
I generally drove in the right hand lane. If you drive at or just above the speed limit (I was generally in the 110 to 120 range) you are good in the right lane. If you need to pass check your mirror, pass in the left lane then get back to the right lane. Many times I saw cars flying down the left lane and were going 160 - maybe 200 km/h so best to get out of the way.
I would highly recommend driving around northern Portugal - we drove to and stayed in Guimaraes, Braga, Viana do Costelho as well as Duoro Valley an several other towns driving back down to Lisbon. Rick doesn't provide many details on towns north of Porto but the landscape and hills were great and worth the drive.
Hope that helps -
Darren