Car Rental in Portugal
 

My husband and I will be touring Portugal this May and June for a little more than 2 weeks. We plan to use a rental car for about a week of our trip. Can anyone give me the lowdown on car rental in Portugal? So far, I have found online that an automatic economy will cost about $700 for a week - insurance and taxes included. This is through Advantage Car Rental. Does this sound like a good price? Any suggestions for finding deals or coupons? Is Advantage a reputable company? How big is an econony car - will my 6 ft husband be comfortable driving it? How can I figure out an estimate for the cost of gas and tolls? Also, anything we should know about driving in Portugal - I've heard that we should be fine, but I've also heard that it can be quite dangerous.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Have you checked with CarJet: http://www.carjet.co.uk/? They see to have good prices.

Michael,

Thanks for the suggestion. I just did a quick online quote and their price looks like it's going to be about half of what I had found earlier. I'm definitely going to look into using them.

Thanks!

This information is so timely for us too. We will need to hire a car for our upcoming visit! We will need a 5 passenger car.

Bailey, I have read that Portugal has the worst driving (highest fatality rate) record in the EU. And driving under the influence does not hold the same stigma as it does in the US and other countries. It kind of scares me, not knowing what to expect on the roads.

Maybe we should post another thread asking about driving and drivers in Portugal?

bailey. We rented from Carjet in Portugal last year and were very satisfied.
Just remember that their is an excess with their car rentals unless you have your own insurance or buy the coverage from them or someone else.
The prices are very good.
Also someone here used
www.fastcarhire.co.uk and the prices are very good for Portual. There is no excess with their rental.
Have a wonderful trip.

seetheworld and Sher - thanks for the info. I will look into fastcarhire and yes, we should ask around about driving in Portugal. Perhaps I will start another thread...

Thanks!

bailey. We didn't find the driving in Portugal especially stressful.
The only thing I really noticed that is if you intend to pass the car in front of you , do so quickly. Cars come up the road from behind in the passing lane very quickly.
So pass and get your car into the other lane!
The roads are very good and well maintained.
The prices I have found for our car is as follows for 9 days in October:

fastcarhire. 309E full coverage

economy car rental: 237E full coverage

carjet: 256E excess of 750E charge for extra driverof 15E

This is for a small automatic. All have unlimited miles.

Bailey: I posted a recent reply to your CAR question in the other long thread titled: "Things to do in and around Lisbon".

Sher and mari5 - thank you for your responses - you have been very helpful!

My spouse and I did not find driving in Portugal any riskier nor more stressful; perhaps we were just plain lucky. But we did get lost a lot. We are quite experienced in Europe having driven in Spain, and even in England-Scotland-Wales on the "wrong side" of the road but even when armed with Michelin driving directions printed prior to our trip, we found there were not enough signs to guide us.
One thing I can say, they are very helpful or at least try very hard to help.

My husband and I rented a car in Portugal last October and drove around for 9 days. Used Avis and it was quite reasonable - maybe $400 total for a VW Golf that just fit our luggage. We found driving in Portugal, especially north up the coast and down the center, to be a delight - the roads are all newly paved and the highways excellent with little traffic (far better than the streets in DC!). Lisbon traffic was quite heavy of course. As others have posted, only use the left lane for passing and you'll be fine. While route numbers didn't always agree with our map, it was easy to see which roads were highways and toll roads, as signage was excellent. Claire and David