We'll be driving to Porto from the Duoro Valley on a Saturday morning and need to return our rental car. We're staying in Porto at the Pestana Porto-A Brasileira which appears to be near the river. Does it make sense to try to navigate the city to a rental location near our hotel or is it just easiest to head to the airport o return the car and then taxi to the hotel? I'd also appreciate suggestions on which road/highway is most direct to the airport if that's the easiest thing to do. Thanks!

Welcome to Fodors. We have moved your thread to the Europe Forum and tagged it for Portugal

We returned our car at the airport return - much easier than driving into the city. A shuttle then took us to the airport, where we took a train into the city and took it to São Bento station. I’m sure it would be possible to get a cab from the airport as well. I wouldn’t want to drive into Porto to return a car.

We returned the car in Porto proper, but missed the turn to the original drop-off location and found the other one purely by accident as we were looking for a gas station. It would be much less frustrating to drop the car off at the airport.

Drop off at airport. Even then ensure you know where to drop of. There are several car parks and a lot of circular systems. Take a wrong turn and you have to do teh block all over again. Those taxis do not take prisoners.
The airport to the hotel can be done using bus or tram. Goolge maps will tell you more. I personally suggest taxi to the hotel.

We returned our car at the airport. We located the rental car return with only one stressful wrong turn. The guy who drove the Avis shuttle told us that the street they are on isn't a real city street, so it's difficult to locate using GPS.

We took a taxi into Porto. It can be a bit of a wait; not a whole lot of taxis, but not too bad.

If you want to take an Uber or Lyft, try to figure out the pick up point in advance.

A4 untill almost Matosinhos. Then, at "Custóias", VRI. And that's it, you are at the airport. From there take the metro (it's the first (and last) stop, so no way you can make a mistake. Buy an andante card (60 cent) choosing a Z4, and charge it (2 euros one trip). One andante card for each person. If you have a Visa card (A Visa card, not an AMEX, or Mastercard, or Eurocard, or whatever, just a Visa card) you don't need to buy the Andante card, just validate your Visa at the blue validator (you will see them, the validators, trust me). If not, after buying the Andante card, validate it in any validator, blue or yellow. Go inside the metro train untill Trindade station. Once there, you can either walk (if you pack light, it's like 10 minutes to your hotel going down, so not difficult) or take the yellow line (go down, t's the only one there that is undergrown) towards Santo Ovidio, leave it 2 stops after, at São Bento, and walk to your hotel.


Your hotel is in the best location of Porto, in my opinion.

Have fun!

How do they pay the toll road near the airport. Are transponders included with all rentals?