csandoval

Hello everyone,

does anyone have any recommendations on any rental car companies with good deals? trying to pick up a car in Lisbon, Portugal, and then drop it off in Malaga, Spain.

I've priced out the rentals thru Avis, Hertz and Europcar but they are coming over 1K Euros. I'm trying to rent the car for 10 days.

Any insight info will be appreciated!

Carlos

janisj

Any time you drop a rental car in a different country, you will face hefty drop off fees.

You might consider dropping one car in Portugal, take a train or fly to your next stop in Spain and pick up a 2nd car.

caroltis

We are going to rent a car in France and then proceed to Barcelona...after investigating and trying to work dropping off the car in France and taking the train to Spain, picking up another rental car, etc. It wasn't going to be worth the hassle and the time lost...we're paying the $360 drop off fee. The drop off fees were just about the same with every rental company. We went with Europcar.

NEDSIRELAND

caroltis writes: "... It wasn't going to be worth the hassle and the time lost...we're paying the $360 drop off fee. The drop off fees were just about the same with every rental company. We went with Europcar."

Is that $360 USD or 360 Euro?? If it's Euros it makes a significant difference.

You're looking at the situation purely as a matter of convenience. That's all well & good if you can afford it. There are some other factors (like Insurance coverage) to consider when driving a rental car in another Country. Just because both Countries are EU Members does not mean your Insurance coverage carries over automatically

hetismij

Third party insurance is always covered in another country in Europe - that's what the green card is for. Most hire companies also allow you to take you hire car to other countries and provide the full insurance you have paid for for any country you go to. There are exceptions, usually the same ones as on the Green Card. Plenty of Europeans hire a car for their summer hols elswehere in Europe instead of taking their own, especially those with a company car, who may be subject to restrictions.

hetismij

Oh and the one way fee doesn't sound too bad - we paid $500 for a one way fee in the US 6 years ago.

csandoval

there has to be other local companies with better prices.

ribeirasacra

But if they are local they will not have offices in two locations. So if you hire in one country and drop off in another then you have to use a large European (read International) company.

caroltis

360 in USD not euros.

caroltis

And our situation is that we check out of our apartment in Provence on a Saturday. I think the earliest I could get a train to a location to pick up another rental car in Spain left so late that when we arrived the car rental office would be closed. That would put us spending the night in that location and still not being able to get a car the next day because it would be Sunday and the car rental office is closed on Sunday. And yes convenience certainly does figure into the equation.

SuQue

We crunched all the numbers and ended up dropping the car off in Portugal, having a driver take across the border, and renting another car in Spain. It was a huge savings.

Nikki

We did this last summer when we rented a car in Lisbon, went to the Alentejo for two nights, and drove on to Madrid. There were no local drop off places anywhere near us in the Alentejo, and the alternatives were all ludicrously cumbersome (e.g., driving back to Lisbon and flying to Madrid), so we ended up paying the large dropoff fee.

When we discussed the problem at length on the phone with a representative from AutoEurope, he said they do have situations when people are driving to southern Spain, that there were places you could drop off in Portugal and pick up nearby in Spain. I don't remember the locations because they wouldn't work for us, but they might work for you.

csandoval

Thanks Nikki! I'll check out that route with Europcar.

SueQue - do you recall the rental car company you use?