Help please. Is it expensive to drop a hire car in a different country. Alternative would be to get a bus apparently for 6 hours or a tiny plane. 3 of us are travelling and will just have a few days in Portugal before flying to London.

We just checked this issue for a client going from Lisbon to Sevilla. The one-way drop off fees ranged from €1000 to €1200 for a compact car. The price of a rental itself varied from a few hundred Euros to more than €1000 (Hertz). The bus sounds sounds good to me.

The option we arrange was to take a private transfer from Lisbon to Badajoz for just under €300, and pick up a car there to continue their trip.

Avis was a little over $500 for the day including drop off fee from Sevilla to Lisboa.

Did you actually rent the car for the one-day trip, Sevilla-Libon? I just checked AVIS' rates in May for their cheapest compact car, a Seat Leon or similar. The estimated charge came to just under $660 USD, not including the milage charge, which would be about $290 USD at $0.62/km, plus the cost of the fuel. But getting an estimate does not mean that the car will be available until it is actually confirmed.

Overall the price isn't too bad, but I can do a private transfer for less.

Thanks everyone. Now thinking about the bus. Anybody done it? It is frustrating as we will visit friends near portuguese border but will probably have to drive back to seville.

ps trying to look up bus on alsa site and it says no service. I tried both lisbon names as not sure which to choose.

I've taken the bus from Lisbon to Sevilla. It is a long trip, basically takes the entire day. There's a stop at a highway rest stop for about 45 minutes, and I had to transfer to another bus at a place on the highway near Badajoz. Not my favorite way to travel, but the options are limited.

p.s. Just checked the movelia.es website. Click on the international tab, then put in your route. You'll see there is an overnight bus listed. I took a daytime bus but I don't see it on the schedule, you are right though that it's an ALSA.

Spending hour after hour on a bus vs one-hour on a flight doesn't make much sense, especially when there are TAP flight between Lisbon and Sevilla for as low as €125/person, one-way, depending on your dates.