I am trying to plan a coastal trip from Lisbon to Barcelona then Barcelona to Monoco or Nice then to Rome. We would like to drive on the coast for the view but have been told there is not alot to see as the roads do not necessarily follow the coast. Is this true? I don't imagine there is a train that would. I also have heard renting a car would incounter a heavy drop off fee. Thanks for any assistance.
Posted by
Florida (previously California)
3695 posts
Yes, you will encounter a large drop off fee but your idea sounds lovely but slow. I don't know if you can travel from Lisbon to Cadiz, Spain and follow the coastline but I do know that you can follow the coastline with some exceptions between Cadiz to just south of Barcelona by driving on N340. I think you can probably do your planned trip as long as you accept that sometimes you will not hug the coast and are willing to pay the drop-off fee but this might be a trip that requires a lot of planning time with a good paper map
Posted by
7667 posts
If you plan to rent a car, you will pay a lot to rent in one country and drop in another.
I have been all over Spain, Portugal, Southern France and Italy. I think trying to stick to coastal roads would be way to slow and frustrating. Still, do so research and try going through certain areas.
Avoid going through large cities unnecessarily (like Genoa).
Spain is very mountianous and would be especially frustrating to stick to the coast all the way.
Don't miss Seville, my favorite city in Spain. Rhonda is near the coast near Malaga, while I didn't think much of the Costa del Sol area in general. When in the French Riveria, there is a very scenic road from Nice to Monaco. Also, away from the coast in SE France is a wonderful small town called St. Paul deVence that is like a mini Rothenberg ob der Tauber.
In Italy, you would visit Cinque Terre and then near Pisa is Lucca that is not far from the coast.
Posted by
Michigan
315 posts
We thought we would rent a car in Lisbon in 2014 and travel up the coast of Spain to Barcelona. The $600 drop-off fee change our plans! We took a train south to, I believe, Faro, then a bus to Seville and rented a car there. Then drove to Tarifa for a day trip to Tangiers, and drove up the coast to Nerja. This was a scenic drive, but not quaint. My notes are that we were surprised at how developed it was ("like Florida" was one of my notes lol). Then we went inland to Granada and continued to Barcelona, but not along the coast since we had a schedule to keep so the highway from Granada to Barcelona made more sense. If that helps at all.
Posted by
4384 posts
First, how much time do you have for the journey (including stops you will make), and what month will it take place? In summer, I would worry about coastal traffic.
There are ways to piece it together where you use trains, buses, and then rent a car only for certain scenic stretches (Viamichelin is a good website for finding these).
If the trip is of sufficient length, you could lease a car to get around the drop off-fee. Search "lease" on the Autoeurope website.
I would first focus your research on which parts you want to do by car, then it should not be too difficult to put it all together.
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11179 posts
A quick look found the one way drop fee in the neighborhood of $2000.00 for a typical rental car.
You heard correctly about the "heavy drop off fee".
That in addition to the regular rental fee.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6539 posts
Decades ago when I lived in Spain there were no interstates, so going anywhere was via the Nacional (Nxxx) roads. It took forever to go anyplace because the roads are generally two lanes and go through every town. If driving on them expect to get stuck behind slow driving cars, trucks, or tractors. Along the coast, if during tourist season, expect to sit in traffic with all the other tourists.
There are now interstates that go near the coast, but bypass the small towns and much of the traffic. Even with interstates it would take 3-4 days to drive the Spanish coast and that’s without stopping to see anything. While in theory the plan seems doable, I believe there are many practical limitations of trying to do it all in one trip. It took me years and multiple trips to drive completely around Spain following its borders.
Posted by
Barcelona ☀️ Sweden ❄️
3904 posts
You'd probably need at least 3 months and several thousand €€€ to complete such an oddesy. A car would be the only way to do it, if you wanted to travel primarily along the coast.
Instead of traveling along the Mediterranean side of Spain, I'd travel along the Atlantic side of Spain. Go from Lisboa to Oporto, then cross into Galicia, make your way along the Cantabrian coast until the Basque Country, cut across the Pyrenees, continue along the French and Italian Mediterranean coast until Roma.