Driving this summer from Spain to Portugal, crossing the border on the Seville-Algarve leg.
Any recommendations on either
- car rental companies that have no or low one-way fees,
- or a convenient way to drop off in Spain/pick up in Portugal that doesn't involve killing a day to do it?

Thanks!!!

Not aware of any agencies that have no drop-off fee.

We avoided it by picking up a car from Spain in Lisbon and dropping off in Madrid. They asked us if we would be happy to do this - since the car was larger than we had scheduled - but at the rate we had reserved.

But I would assume this is a lot more likely than picking up a Portuguese car in Spain and returning it. And obviously there were no guarantees.

Europcar has an office in Monte Gordo, just across the border. You can take a bus from Sevilla or Huelva to Vila Real de Santo Antonio, which is close to Monte Gordo and pick up a car there.

http://www.eva-bus.com/novo/lagos_sevilha.php

Robert - do you know of any car rental agencies in Huelva, or closer to the border, so that the border can be crossed by taxi?

Taking the bus is certainly possible but not practical in our case, I'm afraid. The drop-off charge is about $250-300 - not peanuts, but not worth losing too much time over. The buses you mention run twice a day - we need more flexibility than that.

Thank you so much for your help!

Europcar has an office at the train station in Huelva. It's about a 50 minute taxi ride from Huelva to Monde Gordo, so expect a taxi to be €130 to €180.

We are in the same situation. Trying to figure out how to get from Malaga to Faro or Albufiera where we will pick up our rental car. I understand it is very costly to pick a car up in Spain and drop in Portugal. Correct? Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Take train (www.renfe.es) or bus (www.alsa.es) to Sevilla.
Take bus to Albufeira or Faro from there, as Robert mentioned above.
Just make sure you have enough time in between, as train stations are usually not next door to bus stations (I don't know about Sevilla) and a bus arriving late does not make the other company's bus service wait.