Hiring a car in Portugal and dropping it off in Spain
 

We are planing another holiday next year - May and June which will include Portugal and Spain. Although we have visited these 2 countries in 2010 it was on a guided tour so the travelling side of our journey was the responsibility of the touring company.

This time around we would like to hire a car in Lisbon, Portugal and drive up to Oporto, then over to Salamanca, Spain and leave the car there. Time is not the issue with us for we are still in the planning stage. The question is - Can you hire a car in Portugal and return it in Spain.

If anyone has information relating to experience or research on this question I would welcome an answer. Thank you and happy to travels everyone :)

Carol - Australia

You'll find that there is a steep drop off fee when picking up in one country and dropping off in a second country, actually not much different what you would run into anywhere else when doing a one way rental. You'd be better off taking the bus from Porto to Salamanca.

I once ended up doing this and paid a very high one way dropoff fee. By the time I looked into the rental car, all our other travel plans had been arranged, and it would have been even more expensive to change them than to pay the exorbitant charge for the one way rental from Portugal to Spain.

Usual way to get around the high cross-border dropoff fee is to divide it in two separate sections. Rent one in Portugal and drop off in a town near the border, travel by public transport to the nearest Spanish town with a rental station, and rent a Spanish-registered car to be dropped off in Salamanca.
Possibility includes along thr Algarve, at Faro and Huelva. There is a bus leaving Fara around 1355/1400 and arriving in Huelva around 1630 (there is one hour time difference, so the actual journey is around 90 min).
See http://thomasallen.home.sapo.pt/travel/001.htm
In Northern Portugal, there is a bus service from Oporto Airport to Vigo, taking about 2 hours 30 min.
http://www.autna.com/regulares.php. One-way fare is around 10 euro.