Drive from Portugal to Spain?
 

My husband and I are considering flying to Lisbon, renting a car to explore Portugal and then driving to Spain (Sevilla) to travel in Andalucia (return home via Madrid). We are more interested in historical sights than beach resorts and are looking at central Portugal(Oviedo, Navare, Coimbra). Is there just too much driving time between Portugal and Sevilla to make sense for a 17 day trip? If not, is there a route you would suggest? Thank you!

You need to be aware of a high drop fee dropping a off car in Spain that you picked up in Portugal.
We had a driver take us across the border from Northern Portugal to Galicia, Spain and saved a lot by doing that.
Your itinerary sounds too ambitious for 17 days. You can easily spend the whole time in Portugal and maybe add Sevilla or Santiago de Compostela in Spain.Or concentrate on Spain this trip and save Portugal for later.

I think that is quite doable, but I would make a roundtrip loop and drop the car back in Portugal. I did a loop once that was like this:
Cascais[Lisbon]
Obidos
Marvao
Evora
Sevilla[3 nites]
Algarve[Lagos]
Palmela
Depart Lisbon

The car drop will be high if you drop in Spain.

Since your primary destination in Spain is Sevilla, I suggest that you drop off the Portuguese rental car in Albufeira or Faro and take a Bus (or private car & driver) to Huelva.
You can pick up another rental car in Huelva, or continue by Bus (Damas SA has good service) to Sevilla.

Thank you, all three of you, for your feedback. We really appreciate it!

lmtmbc77

Hi Imtmbc77; As Bob said, you can do a 'loop' from Lisbon. We are doing that with only 8 nights. Four in Portugal and four in Spain. Our 'loop' is, two nights in Evora, then visit Monsaraz on the way to Seville. Three nights in Seville. Then head north for one night in Caceres. Our last two nights are in Obidos. On the way to Obidos, we will visit Marvao and Tomar. You could easly expand to Granada and double back. Visit Cordoba. Or you could go to Toledo from Granada and spend three days. One day take a train into Madrid for the day.Then on to Caceres. We have done a similar loop before. And then back into Portugal. The roads and signposting are good. We like long days to see as much as possible. You need a Michelin 'green guide' to decide which
cities/towns you would like to visit. Then start putting the dots together and see if it works. We rented a car from Sixt and there is no cross bordor charge and the rate was reasonable. ENJOY Iris

last time i did this the auto company charged me Euro 48 for the pleasure of corossing the border. Check small print

Hi biboburgler; Thanks and we will be ready for an extra charge. However, I have contacted the local Sixt office in Portugal and they responded that there will be no 'bordor charge.' But I am familar with unexpected charges from Europcar in France. We have a good rental rate from Sixt and that helps. Iris

We did your trip in reverse last December and were glad we decided to drive. We started in Malaga and saw Granada, Cadiz and Sevilla. We drove to Lisbon and used that as a base to see Cascais and Sintra - and we did that comfortably in ten days so with seventeen you can see much more.

Get the car company to give directions between cities - we used Michelin maps (which had always been great in the past) and they often did match up - though we never went more than 5 minutes in the wrong direction.

Let me know if you need any help with hotels - we found some great deals.

Great tips, thank you! "Merrisr", do you remember how long the drive from Sevilla to Lisbon took? I haven't had a chance to look at a current roadmap. Were the roads on that route primary/motorway grade or more secondary/two lane?

Thank you!