We are picking a car up in Barcelona and one week later dropping it off in Portugal. Auto Europe wants a $540 drop off charge. No way. Does anyone know where in Spain close to the border we can drop the car off and pick another one up on the other side so we can continue our road trip?
Posted by
S.F. Bay Area, CA, United States
1878 posts
Train and bus connection between the two countries are not that great, bbelieve it or not. Your best best is probably the overnight train between Madrid and Lisbon. You can pick up a car in Cascais, we dropped one off there in 2008 after picking up in Coimbra.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6792 posts
I've done just that, although going the other way.
I agree - it depends on where you're coming from and where you're headed. In my case, we were coming from southern Portugal (the Algarve) and headed for the white hill towns of southern Spain. We picked up our car in Lisbon, drove down through the Algarve for a few days, then dropped the car in Faro, near the Spanish border. We then took a bus to the actual border (a river), a ferry across the river, hiked about half a mile, then picked up a bus to Huelva, where we picked up another car, and drove off.
It made for a long, fairly complicated day, but it all worked out - and saved us like US$600.
I'd look for where you want to cross, then search for the closest towns on both sides of the border with rental agencies. Look for a bus to make the last connection.
Good luck!