Saturday 19 January 2008

One way car hire Portugal-Spain

Question to me on AllExperts.com

"We are travelling to Lisbon in March, hoping to rent a car to go up to oporto, then on into Spain to our daughter in Madrid and fly back to the UK from there. The problem is no-one except Avis will do an international one way rental at an extortionate price. We can get a car that will get us as far as Braganca in the north east of Portugal but how do we get from there into somewhere in Spain, eg Zamora or Salamanca, where we might be able to pick up a spanish car? grateful for any ideas."

My Reply:

In brief, with great difficulty!

There are no easy public transport links between towns in the interior of Portugal near the Spanish Border and Spain.

One Possible option however might be to head North from Porto to Viana da Castelo and then get the twice daily train from there to Vigo where you could pick up another hire car.

You can download a copy of the timetable from my blog:

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/

Scroll down on the left to the section:

>>Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links

and then click on:

Porto - Vigo Train Timetable (PDF)

www.alsa.es also operate a daily bus service between Guarda and Salamanca as follows:

Dept: Guarda 12:30
Arr: Salamnca: 16:30

This might also be an option.

Hope this helps