One way car rental Spain and Portugal

In a word, don't! The fee for dropping a rental car in another country is generally astronomic. One thing you could do is drive as far as Sevilla and drop the car there. Then you can take a bus to Lisbon. There are other possibilities, depending on your itinerary, like cheap flights. If you get more specific about where you are going, I'm sure many people will chime in with ideas for you.

Depending on how long you plan to stay, and what your routing is, rail travel is far faster and more economical than driving. It may pay to rent a car to cover, say Andalucia (Malaga and Marbella have the cheapest rental rates in the country) but, as Rosalyn says, you'll be hit with a huge drop-off cost from Barcelona to Lisbon. If I remember correctly, I saw an $1100 weekly rate to drop in Portugal from Spain....compared to about $400 to rent for the week in Spain alone.

I don't know about Barcelona to Portugal. We landed in Barcelona, took the train to Madrid and then on to Sevilla. We picked up our car in Sevilla, drove it for 8 days and dropped it off in Lisbon (Auto Europe) it was a mid sized automatic (Peugot diesel). Total price to drive it for 8 days, with all insurance included CDW, and drop it off in Lisbon was $790 US..in 2005. I checked different dropoff/pick up locations...had I dropped it off in the Algare, it would have cost $1400. Do your homework, it's not that expensive...and if you have checked, it's not easy getting from Spain to the Algare via public transportation.

Try www.autoeurope.com. It will be expensive if allowed. you could always as an option rent in Spain then drive it around return somewhere along your route then train it, bus it or even fly into Lisbon with a low cost airline.

I am having a similar transportation problem getting from Portugal (Algarve) to the Sevilla area of Spain. My plan was to rent a car in Lisbon after spending a couple of days there, pick-up a rental car and drive to Salema in the Algarve, spend a few days and drop car in Faro,Portugal, but then what? How does one get from Faro into Spain, lets say, Huelva, Spain near the border to pick-up a car in Spain? Certainly there is a way. Help! Thanks!

I'm wondering the same thing - how to do a rental car between southern Spain (Andalusia) and Algarve then Lisbon (not sure which direction -- I'm recalibrating my plans). I'm wondering about renting 2 cars separately - one for the Spain portion, one for the Portugal portion - assuming I can find dropoff/pickup points close to the border, and just taking a taxi from one to the other. That seems crazy, but if it's what you have to do to beat a big fee, I'd do it.

I gave specific history of a very reasonable car rental approach we took back in 2005...from the subsequent comments it appears that no one is reading them....WAKE UP CAMPERS....less than $100/day, full insurance, midsized car with automatic...and drop off in Lisbon!

Susan and Dave....Bus is the easiest way to get from Faro to Huelva (or indeed Sevilla)....in fact, it's the only way without a car. There are four a day from Faro to Huelva/Sevilla run jointly by the EVA and Damas bus lines....7:40, 9:20 am, 1:55, and 4:35 pm. Another two daily buses are run by the Alsa bus company...2 am(!) and 4 pm. Tickets for the Alsa buses must be purchased at the office of "Mundial Turismo," not the main EVA ticket office in the bus depot. And I have been told that that particular office is closed on weekends, so if you choose the Alsa service, get your tickets before then. All buses are modern air conditioned coaches with washrooms, and all have reserved seating. Journey times are about 90 minutes to Huelva...another 75 minutes to Sevilla.

Lots of things can change in three years, Bill, particularly in the travel area. Perhaps what you did isn't possible now. Not everyone reads all of the subsequent answers before offering suggestions, but there's no need to be rude.

Bill...you can get a family-sized car from Sevilla for eight days for about $600, all in. Your $790 in 2005 would cost about $1130 with today's exchange rate, which is almost exactly what an earlier poster realized. Please don't be offended if no one takes you up on your information....but it is a touch outdated.

I'm sorry if I came across as rude, I was surprised by some of the questions...the trouble with trying to do a drop off is that it's not part of the "automatic" booking process of most car rental agencies. With Auto Europe (an American firm located in Maine) you have to call.

1-888-223-5555.

When you call, have a couple of options in mind (when I called I was thinking of a particular itinerary...I changed it when I discovered how much I could save by changing my drop off from the Algare to Lisbon). If you only ask what is the drop off price between point A and B, they will give you that price. If you have several options, you may see price breaks in the options that would not otherwise be apparent.

I did quite a bit of research in planning my last trip to Spain and Portugal, and Norm is right about their not being train alternative from Sevilla to Faro (or Lisbon)..so the bus to Faro is a solution, however, when I took into account that there would be two one way rentals, even though they were within the same country, the total cost and inconvenience convinced me that the one way trip was the best alternative...and at the end of the day, that's what we are talking about..alternative's. For some the compromise is on price, for some it's convenience, and for other's it's about schedule. I do almost all of my traveling "one way"...whether it's by plane or by car...unless it makes sense do otherwise.

My apologies to all...

In order to answer Gary's question with specific information (instead of my experiences), I called Auto Europe and asked if they could furnish one way rental between Spain and Portugal...I had to use specifics, so I used my old route...from Sevilla to Lisbon and I used the dates Oct 1 through Oct 9...Mario at Auto Europe informed me that none of their suppliers (Hertz, Avis and I believe he said Europcar Rental) would supply a car for that one way trip. Conditions have indeed changed in ways that I wouldn't have predicted (normally we see cross country services and commerce increasing year to year in Europe). That's not to say it can't be done...it's just not as easy as I portrayed it.

Try europcar.com They have many offices all over Europe. I know on their web page you can choose different locations for pick-up and drop-off, but I don't know how much the fee would be.

I have done some further research on the Lisbon to Andalusia transportation connections. The least expensive option I have come up with is as follows. Keep in mind I am beginning in Lisbon. I will be without a car the first 2 days while visiting Lisbon. On the 3rd day I will pick-up a rental car from Hertz, an economy size, Toyota Yaris (whatever that is) for $175 for one week. (Just input CDP code 1652960, if you know anyone that works for Hertz!) I will drive to Sintra and the coastal towns nearby and then on to the Algarve. I booked a one-way rental from Lisbon to Faro, however I will travel to Sevilla, Granada, Ronda, and whatever else I find in that loop before returning the car one-week later to Faro. We will then take the bus to Sevilla, where we fly on RyanAir to Italy. Yes, it is some backtracking, about 2 hours by car from Sevilla to Faro, and then 4 hours by bus back to Sevilla to get the plane. If you would rather you can return your Portuguese rental in Faro, bus to Huelva, Spain just over the border, and rent from Hertz there, although the rental cars are much more expensive in Spain. Just some ideas! I did confirm with Hertz that you can take your car rented in Portugal into Spain.