Renting a Car

I'd first check out what's available through Auto Europe (http://www.autoeurope.com/) and Kemwel (http://www.kemwel.com/), two brokers under the same ownership. I've been using them for rentals in France for about 25 years, with no complaints. They work with most of the major rental companies.

I second the Auto Europe recommendation. They are a consolidator so you will likely pick up your car from Europcar but I've always been happy with the car and service using Auto Europe.

I just looked at Autoeurope and Hertz rentals in Portugal. They seem incredibly expensive compared to other countries in Europe where we have rented. Is this what others have found as well?

They may get more expensive in the high summer months. I'm renting a car next week and the price is 210€ for 10 days - which I think is a very good price. I'm using Autoeurope, and have used them almost exclusively for many years. I've always been satisfied with their service.
Depending on where you will be going, you may very likely be able (and advised) to not have the car the entire time you are here.
For Porto and Lisbon, a car would be a liability. And, getting between the bigger cities, trains are inexpensive and easy. Take a look at your itinerary and see if you can cut down the days (or weeks) you have the car..

Just returned from a 25 day trip thru Portugal. We rented our car thru AutoEurope with Avis. Picked-up Lisbon airport / return Mundial Hotel, Lisbon. Vehicle had a small barcode by the rear license plate indicating vehicle was a rental car. Some other rental companies such as Sixt, Hertz, Budget have large decals on them. The reason I am writing this is because our vehicle and another one (both Avis rentals) were robbed while parked in Monsaraz. I advise removing any decal or barcode sticker showing vehicle is a rental. Keep in mind, small villages have very narrow streets/roads. Smaller the vehicle the better.
If interested in our itinerary, contact me.

We are traveling, spain, Portugal and France over 60 days , may and june 2018. We were going to do a eurail saver pass for 2 months, but reading Ricks recommendations , it seems like a bad move. Minimal coverage by train. About 70-80% seems to be done by bus. So our choice now is on the spot bus/train tickets vs renting a car. We were planning on going into madrid, seeing southern spain, over to Portugal and moving south to north, then crossing back into spain and doing northern spain /southern france, to Barcelona. Then going north to Provence and doing southern 1/2 of france.

Our travel goals are to never back track, we do no reservations, and go where the wind takes us. Backpacks only.

We love the idea of just jumping on to any train and seeing where we end up..

We did Croatia by car from split to Zagreb over several days and it was great.
does anyone know if they driving on the Left hand side or the right hand side. We have trouble driving on the wrong side( british side)??

If anyone has input re: car vs bus, I would appreciate it?
Thanks, Karen