A car rental quote to pick up in Cordoba & drop off in Lisbon a couple weeks later incurs a 600 EURO drop-off fee!!!!
Anybody have an idea how to drop the car, say, in Cadiz, & hop a trip over to southern Portugal where we would rent a car for just Portugal?
Thank you.
You could drop off in Seville, take a bus to, say, Faro (it's pretty quick) and rent a new car there. You lose some travel time but save those 600 euros.
Whatever works that you return it in the same country as you pick it up. Both of these countries have extensive bus and train transport - however, for some reason, between the 2, the system isn't great.
Depending on the need of the car, others find that flying from Seville to Lisbon a less painful approach. Otherwise, as stated, drop near the border. Look at public transport between Huelva Spain and Faro Portugal and whether you can pick up a car in Faro. Alternatively, Albufeira or Tavira.
Go to autoeurope.com and search for pick up/ drop off locations on each side of the border.
We had a 1000€ drop fee estimate for Lisbon/Barcelona. We avoided it by dropping car off in Porto,Portugal taking a taxi to Vigo, Spain, 150€ fee, well worth it for a month long rental. Our hotel in Porto arranged for the driver who did not speak English which was OK with us, a savings. We had tried finding drivers online to do this (easy, all Autostrada) ) cross border trip and they quoted us much higher prices. You could do the same process in southern Spain/ PT.
Cordoba to Lisbon is probably a 2 day job for someone to repatriate the car, as it’s 6+ hours in each direction, hence the high one way drop fee.
Public transport connections to Faro from Cadiz are via Seville. Whereabouts on the Algarve are you heading? From Seville, the bus takes about 2.5 hours, but this would be around 5 hours from Cadiz.
Drive to Badajoz, on the Portuguese border, drop off car, and take the 2 hr ALSA Bus to Lisboa. On the way to Badajoz make sure to stop at the Moorish castle at Zafra and the Roman Ruins at Mérida.
This isn’t a solution to avoiding the charge, but for what it’s worth, back in 2002 we did it in the opposite direction, renting in Lisbon and dropping off in Spain. There were 3 of us to split the $600 fee, which was the same 17 years ago as it is now. Logistically, we just decided that was the best combination of convenience, time, and price for us. Hope you get a workable arrangement.
Hi from Wisconsin,
Check autoeurope for rates for the whole trip, then check the combined costs of you two rentals, which each could have a dead head charge and don't forget to add cost of bus/train plus value of time involved.
Consider staying in one country...that is a possibility. Either country has plenty to see on its own.
Enjoy your trip regardless,
Wayne iNWI
I have no experience with Euro one way drop-offs but here in the States, the direction of the one way can make a difference. Rental companies will up charge one way drop-offs where too many cars end up at that rental station and they have to get them back to the car's originating area. In the opposite direction, the one-way charge may be minimal if they would like to get the car back.
Don't be afraid to fly between Spain and Portugal, either - there are some cheap budget flights between Lisbon and various Spanish cities, not just Madrid.
We once paid no fee from Amsterdam to Paris because they had a car that needed t be returned to Paris -- when you pick up you might see if they have such a need.
