Hi everyone! My sister and I are planning a road trip from Spain to Portugal in September. Can you pick a rental up in Barcelona and leave it in Portugal? What would we need to know before hand? Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated

Bring lots of money for the drop fee.

If you an to deive on the highway in Portugal the Spanish car will not be equipped with the transponder for the Portuguese automatic (unmanned) tolls.

You will incur a hefty fee for picking up the car in one country and leaving it in another, the rental firm will tell you how much. Barcelona is a fair way from the Poruguese border, so expect a high fee.

As marigross says, the toll highways in Portugal work using a device fitted in the car that charges as you drive through the toll area and a Spanish car will not have that. You can buy a preloaded (by you) toll payment card:

http://www.portugaltolls.com/en/web/...portagens/home

It will be much easier to leave the Spanish car on the Spanish side of the border (usually still incurring a one way fee) and rent again on the Portuguese side.

I just checked Europcar, and for their cheapest manual car rental, dropping off in Portugal instead of Spain costs US$500, when the rental is for the same time period (one week in AUgust).

So the US$500 covers both the car rental and the drop-off fee? Because that's not so bad.

I read Christina's post to mean that the drop off fee is $500 plus any rental charges. Christina?

As others have pointed out, an important issue is understanding Portugal's unmanned toll road system, and dealing with paying tolls if the car you are driving is not equipped with a transponder that will automatically tote up the charges for you.

Whether or not the drop-off fee is worth it to you depends on a lot of factors.

In Spain you will need an International Driver's Permit (IDP).

And if you wear glasses, be sure to have a second pair in the car.

If stopped by the police and you don't have either, they can get testy.