road trip from san sebastian to lisboa
 

we want to spend 30 days from around april 8/17 driving, make multiple stops in every beutiful city and small towns,
find great restaurants, good wine, etc. need tips for good places to stay ( vrbo , hotels ) and of course visit the most important sites
we need tips where to rent car, first time doing this in Europe


thank you

This is a very wide question and you don't give us much to go on. What interests you? Museums, coastal resorts, old towns, art? Do you intend to drive one way, leaving your car in Lisbon? If so, you should be aware of the drop off fees charged by rental companies which can be quite hefty. If you do intend to do this, you need one of the large rental companies as local ones in San Sebastian won't allow it.

We also need a budget for your hotels, restaurants etc.

Without some idea of where you plan to fly into and out of (assuming you're flying), what your interests are, what your budget is, etc., etc., what kind of ccommodations and food and wine appeal to you, my first suggestion would be to make multiple stops in guidebooks and maps.

For car rentals, check out autoeurope.com or kemwel.com. Be aware that cross-border drop-off fees on rentals tend to be stiff.

We traveled around northern Portugal and up to Santiago de Compostela, which would cover part of your journey. Click on my name to find the trip report.

We drove the reverse itinerary for part of a six week trip.
Started in Lisbon and spent two weeks touring Portugal, ending in Porto(Obidos, Evora, Coimbra, Guimares, Porto). Dropped our Portugese rental car off at Porto airport. Hired a taxi to take us over border into Spain, to Vigo, where we picked up our Spanish rental car. This saved us almost 800 Euros in cross border drop off fees. Then Baiona, O Grove, Santiago de Compostela, Leon, Ribadesilla, Santillana del Mar, San Sebastian, Hondarribia. We continued on across the French side of the Pyrenees with several stops, then Collioure, Begur on Costa Brava, Barcelona. Stayed in Pousadas in Portugal and Paradores in Spain, whenever possible.Only one I don't recommend was in Santillana del Mar. It was a fabulous trip as I am sure yours will be.We booked both car rentals through AutoEurope as we always do for Europe. Check out the current trip report on Galicia by poster Brooke Herron.

All the major rental car companies - Europcar, Avis, Hertz, Sixt etc. - are in San Sebastián itself. They are also in the close by and big international airport in Bilbao and in the small San Sebastián airport.

No better place to start a food, wine and beautiful city tour of the North coast of Spain than in San Sebastián, the culinary capital of Spain if not all of Europe:
http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...stian-tourism/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...y-for-foodies/

You can't do much wrong in food crazy San Sebastián, but Casa Urola has been my favourite in town since the late 80's. Last year it was voted best restaurant in the region by the major local newspaper El Diario Vasco, ahead of all the Michelin star restaurants: http://www.casaurolajatetxea.es/es/portada/

All about going for the famous pintxos in San Sebastián: http://www.todopintxos.com/home/home.php?lang=en

The beautiful Basque coast towards Bilbao: http://tourism.euskadi.eus/basque-coast/

Bilbao, a fabulous city and as different as it gets to sister city San Sebastián: http://www.euskoguide.com/places-bas...ilbao-tourism/

Santander and small Llanes are both very well worth a stop.
http://santanderspain.info/en/
http://en.llanes.com/

Have been traveling much in this area the past 30 years, but never went further west than Llanes. Can't wait to get to Gijón and beyond: http://en.turismo.gijon.es/

For such a long drive, I would opt for a rental in the same class as the Audi-A4 or larger.

Note that the selection of available rental cars in San Sebastián-Donostia (airport or downtown) are not as good as what you will find in Bilbao, either at the airport or at one of the downtown locations.