Traveliing to Spain and Portugal

See my response below I wrote for the other forum question regarding Spain and Portugal for a month.

Definitely we rent a car when we are on the move, but if we are staying in a big city for multiple days then we wait until we leave to pick up the car (city parking can be expensive, and sometimes there are a lot of rules). If you don't have your air tickets yet, try to begin and end in the same country and make a big circle.

You cannot plan a trip like this to see if the train or the car works out cheaper--the object is to make the logistics work for you so you can see everything you want.

It is also not recommended to take rental cars from Spain to Morocco. I would remove Morocco from this itinerary.
Another option is to take a train from one big city to another and then just take some day tours in each city.
Have fun planning!

P.S. Sometimes I reserve a year in advance. I carefully book my hotels, calculate mileage from place to place, decide what sites to visit, and even select restaurants. Don't try to do too much unless you know EXACTLY why you want to go somewhere and WHAT you will do there.

Skip the trip to Tangier, it is more like Tijuana is to San Diego.
Also, 3 days in Santiago de Compostela is two days too much. Instead, take the train up the Douro River to Regua and/or Pinhao.

To me two full days in Santiago de Compostela is sufficient unless you intend to head over to Muxia or another coastal location for a day trip. We visited Fátima and Batalha on the same day from Tomar, but adding Nazaré would be pushing it. The time of year you’re going will affect how busy each place is. I feel Sevilla needs another day and Porto could use one less.

I wouldn’t split your Porto time and you could save some parking fees if you moved it to the end of the trip. From Coimbra go to Santiago then come back to Porto, turn in the car and fly home.

As mentioned, to avoid a large drop off fee, return the rental car in the same country where you picked it up. Seems like a very hectic trip covering a huge area.

Since your trip is in less than 2 months, I'm guessing you've already locked in your flights. (I would have planned a much different route. )

If you've already spent time in Morocco, why do yu want to spend a night in Tangier? As someone already pointed out, the rental company might not allow you to take a car to Africa. Also dropping a rental car in a different country usually means several hundred dollars drop-off fee since the rental company has to pay a driver to go to the other country and bring the car back. Also, if you rent a car in Spain and use it in Portugal, you probably won't be able to get a Portuguese toll reader from the company. Having to make multiple stops on the toll roads will add significant travel time. When you are comparing prices, take into account tolls, gas and parking. In Spain many of the cities on your itinerary are linked by high-speed trains. You can't go 200 kph in a car anywhere, not to mention all the stops you have to make and traffic to deal with. Part of the problem with your plan is that San Sabastian is an outlier. If you drop it, your itinerary will be much smoother and significantly reduce your travel time. Have you checked what the Algarve is like at this time of year? I've not looked into it, but I've read on the forum several posts that a lot of places are closed up for the winter.