But what’s the best way to see it all? We love the bus and train, but renting a car in Portugal is an easy and cost-effective way to get around the country. If you’re traveling in a group of two or more, or would just like more flexibility when it comes to where, how, and when you travel inside Portugal, renting a car is probably your best option. And before you hit the road, check our tips for staying safe on the road in Portugal.

So here are some of our best tips on how to get the best value on your car rental.

Related:

• Search rental cars in Europe
• How to calculate the “real cost” of your rental car
• 10 Ways to save on a trip to Portugal
• 10 Days in Portugal: A budget trip to Lisbon, Porto & Braga

How to save on your rental car in Portugal

To get the best possible deal on a vehicle rental in Portugal, here are a few things you should always keep in mind:

1. Always book ahead with a reputable agency.

Booking directly after you’ve arrived in Porto or Lisbon will almost always cost you substantially more than if you make a reservation ahead of time online. Waiting until the last minute usually means less competition, as agencies run out of cars and prices go up.

2. Compare prices carefully

Compare rates closely between different rental car agencies. When you search for car rentals on EuroCheapo, be sure to look at the details, not just the prices. Do they have free cancellation? Mileage limits? Other small print items?

3. Be careful of super cheap deals

Related to the last point, don’t book a deal that seems too good to be true — it probably is and has all sorts of additional fees. To figure out which deal is the best deal when every offer includes different things use our Car Rental Cost Calculator.

Inspect that car before you drive away from the lot. Photo: patrick janicek

4. Double check the car before you hit the road

At the rental agency, carefully examine the car and have an employee at the rental agency sign off on any existing damage (scratches, dents) before you drive off into the sunset. Same goes for returning the car — make sure an employee signs off that you’ve returned the car in good condition before you leave the car at the end of your trip.

5. Get a toll reader

Speed up your trip by springing for a “Via Verde” toll reader. The rental agency has to offer them and it’s worth avoiding the fuss of paying tolls manually and will save you time on the road — you’ll be able to breeze through the Via Verde line instead of hoarding exact change to pay tolls.

6. Check your insurance

Make sure you book a good travel insurance policy, but don’t pay for coverage that you already have. A good policy should cover any excess in case of an accident not covered by the regular rental insurance (which can be as much as $1,000 or more). That way you won’t have to spring for the extra insurance to cover excess for collisions — it’s very expensive and can double your rental bill.

7. Use a credit card with plenty of available credit

Use a credit card (not a debit or bank card) with enough credit available to cover the excess temporary charges — some rental companies will place a hold on your card until you return the car in good condition.

8. Save gas by renting a smaller car

Go with a mini or economy car — they’re cheaper to rent and will save you money on fuel.

9. Upgrade with caution.

Americans take note: Rental car agencies in Portugal and around Europe have a funny tendency to offer American clients free upgrades to larger cars. This is often because they can’t get rid of them! Take the upgrade with caution: Really large cars will not only cost more for gas, but will be trickier to navigate through tiny European streets and alleyways. Upgrade with caution.

10. Plan to return your car on a weekday

Don’t expect to return or pick up a car on Saturday afternoons or Sundays in smaller towns. Apart from those located in major airports, most rental offices are closed Saturdays after 1 pm and Sundays all day.

A final note on booking

Whichever rental agency you book your car through in Portugal, expect to pay more for an automatic transmission. You’ll also have to shell out more if the driver is 25 years old or younger.

Ready to ride? Search cars throughout Europe now.

The post Portugal Rental Cars: How to save on your rental car appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Note: This article is part of our budget travel guide to Iceland.

Know your travel dates? Search for rental cars on EuroCheapo.

Driving the Ring Road

Traversing the nation on the famous Ring Road takes you across 800 miles of unbelievable landscape. Many people plan at least seven days to get around the island, but depending on the weather and road conditions, it can take even longer if you really want to stop and see the sights.

However, an Icelandic road trip like this will quickly leave cheapo territory with the high gas prices. If you choose to rent a car and camp along the way, that can be an affordable option, but it still comes with its own challenges. However, a car offers the freedom to explore one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Even if you rent a car for one day, you can cover a lot of territory outside of Reykjavik to get a true feel of Iceland.

Note: Driving in Iceland brings many challenges, so make sure to read up on road rules, weather conditions, and what kind of car you should rent before getting behind the wheel. Visit Iceland has a handy guide to driving in Iceland.

Driving through the stunning landscape of Iceland. Photo Michael C.

Other cities within driving distance of Reykjavik

It’s not all about Reykjavik, of course. Other cities and towns worth a visit are:

• Akureyri (4.5 hours from Reykjavik; search for hotels) for skiing, Northern Lights, and whale watching

• Stykkishólmur (2 hours from Reykjavik; search for hotels) offers historic architecture, fishing, and a volcano museum.

• Selfoss is a lovely 45-minute drive through the Hellisheidi Highlands that offers dramatic scenery that you usually only get on a longer tour (search for hotels). Check out the public pool and eat at either Kaffi Krús or the superb Thai restaurant Menam.

• Eyrarbakki and Stokkseyri are both situated along the scenic rocky coast about 45 minutes away from Reykjavik. Eyrarbakki features a maritime museum and excellent bird watching, while Stokkseyri has a popular seafood restaurant,Fjörubordid.

Discover the different regions of Iceland in more detail.

Our guide to budget travel in Iceland

Read more in our guide to saving in Iceland:

• Airfare: Finding cheap flights from the US
• When to go to Iceland
• Budget hotels in Reykjavik
• Bus tours from Reykjavik
• Budget tips for visiting Reykjavik
• Saving on restaurants, bars and nightlife in Reykjavik

The post Save on renting a car in Iceland appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

On past trips, I’ve made the mistake of underestimating these other charges, imagining that they’re probably not that much more expensive than in the States. Not surprisingly, I’ve experienced sticker shock when my credit card bill arrives and I add it all up.

Related: Search and compare rental cars in Europe

Quite often, the initial rental fee will be less than half of the total cost of the final rental experience. With a little planning, however, that shouldn’t shock you.

Why take the time?

Why should you go to the bother of calculating the “real cost” of renting a car before your trip? Quite simply, because you have options beyond just driving. Depending on your itinerary, you may be able to take a train, bus or airplane. By calculating the true car cost, you can make an informed decision about which means of transportation works best for your budget.

Not the final price.

For this post, I’m going to side-step the question of which mode of transportation makes the most sense for your trip. Instead, we’re sticking to cars and their “real cost.” It’s a puzzle worth solving—and should only take you about 20 minutes. Ready?

Our 10-day trip

For demonstrative purposes, let’s take a trip together next March, shall we? Against my better judgement, we’re also going to over-pack our itinerary, visiting four cities during our 10 days in Italy. (I’d prefer three cities–or even two. But this is a typical itinerary.)

We’ll start in Rome, where we’ll spend two nights. Then we’ll drive up to Florence, and spend three nights there. (During one of those days, we’ll explore Tuscany by car.) Next, we’ll head to Venice, where we’ll spend two nights. We’ll then spend one day and night in Verona. Finally, we’ll speed back down to Rome, for one night, before heading home.

With a March 1, 2011 kick-off date, the itinerary looks like this:

March 1: Arrive in Rome. Sleep in Rome.
March 2: Visit Rome. Sleep in Rome.
March 3: Pick up car in Rome, drive up to Florence. Sleep in Florence.
March 4: Visit Florence. Sleep in Florence.
March 5: Drive around Tuscany. Sleep in Florence.
March 6: Drive to Venice. Sleep in Venice.
March 7: Visit Venice. Sleep in Venice.
March 8: Drive to Verona. Sleep in Verona.
March 9: Drive back down to Rome. Sleep in Rome.
March 10: Drive to airport. Return car. Fly home.

For this trip, we’ll pick up our car in Rome on day three and return it one week later. (There is no need to pick it up on your first day in Rome. It will do you no good while you’re visiting Rome and will just run up costs at a garage!)

Good; we have our schedule. Now, let’s find a car.

1. Start with the car rental agency quote.

Let’s get started by searching around the web for the cheapest rate for a car we like. (We’d suggest doing a car search on EuroCheapo. You can search several car rental companies at once.)

After searching around, I found a good rate for the week at Auto Europe. Their quote is $381 for a seven-day rental for a cute little Ford Fiesta, an “economy” class option. Clicking on “terms and conditions,” you’ll find the following details:

This price includes: Unlimited mileage, sales tax, and airport surcharge. There is also theft protection and collision damage coverage, but with a very high deductible.

This rate does not include: Insurance to cover personal injuries to anyone in the car. Gas. Road tax of €2 per day. Tolls.

Cost: $381

2. Add additional coverage.

This part is up to you. Your insurance options will vary, depending on the car rental company you use, the country in which you’re renting and the type and level of coverage that you’d like to purchase. As noted above, our rental comes with some collision damage coverage, but the deductible is high—in our case, we’re liable for the first €1,200.

At the rental office, they’ll probably offer CDW, or a “Collision Damage Waiver” that isn’t technically insurance. Rather, it states that the company will “waive” their right to hold us to the deductible in case of damage to the car. Sometimes this CDW is a good deal, but it, too, can have a high deductible (in which case the rental car company may offer an additional “zero-deductible coverage”). This sort of protection usually runs about $15–25 a day.

Some American credit cards offer the same sort of CDW protection when you purchase the rental with their card. This can save you some serious cash. However, if you take advantage of this, the car rental company may also place a hold on your card—perhaps up to the retail cost of the car itself! (This can obviously wreak havoc with your available credit during your trip!) In case something goes wrong (the car is stolen or you’re in an accident), that card will be charged the full amount—and then you’ll have to take up the refund issue with your credit card company. (For more information on CDW and credit card insurance coverage, check out Rick Steves’ excellent overview.)

For our example, let’s say we’re not covered by our credit card, so we purchase a decent Collision Damage Waiver at $22 per day.

Cost: $154.

3. Calculate distance and approximate gas charges.

Map it out on Google

This can be tricky—and illuminating. Please, stick with me!

To determine the distance we’ll be driving, I just plugged each of these cities into Google Maps in the following order: Rome – Florence – Siena – Florence – Venice – Verona – Rome. If driven directly, on the highways, without stopping to explore, the trip would be 1,363 km (847 miles).

We will be stopping and making little diversions, however, so let’s call it 1,609 km (1,000 miles).

But what’s the fuel efficiency of our car? Again, a little search (for “Ford Fiesta fuel efficiency”) leads us to Cnet, which reports that the 2011 manual-shift Fiesta fuel economy is 28 mpg in the city (11.9 km per liter) and 37 mpg on the highway (15.7 km per liter). We’ll be doing more highway driving, so I’ll average it out to 35 mpg (14.88 km per liter). (To get the mpg-km/liter conversions, I simply typed “35 mpg” into Google, and the conversion came up automatically as a suggestion.)

Doing a little division (1,609 km / 14.88), I can approximate the need for 108 liters of diesel for the trip.

The average cost of diesel in August 2010 in Italy was €1.25 per liter. Multiply liters by price, and we reach €135, or $175.

Cost: $175

4. Calculate tolls.

If you thought calculating distance and gas charges was fun, wait until you start in on tolls! This site, however, makes it possible to view current toll charges on Europe’s main highways.

All European toll roads are not created equal, and charges fluctuate quite a bit depending on the country. For example, France has more expensive toll roads than Italy, while Germany’s Autobahn is free for passenger cars. Also, even in countries with expensive highways, smaller and more charming roads are almost always free to use.

In our case, we have quite a distance to cover, so we’ll stick to Italy’s highways for most of the driving. Looking between Google Maps and the toll calculator, I came up with this:

Rome – Florence: €14.60
Florence – Siena: We won’t take highways. No toll.
Florence – Bologna – Venice: €6.50 + €5.60
Venice – Verona: €3.70
Verona – Bologna – Florence – Roma: €5.30 + €6.50 + €14.60

Total cost for tolls: €56.80 or $74

5. Road tax.

In Auto Europe’s terms and conditions, we find that Italy charges a road tax on car rentals of €2 a day, up to €32 for the rental. This will tack on €14 for our 7-day rental.

Cost: €14 ($18)

6. Parking.

And here we are at our last major charge, but one of the most significant: parking garages. Parking is hardly ever included in the cost of a hotel room when renting in the center of a major European city. (It is often free, however, in more suburban spots or along highways, where there’s often a parking lot.)

In our case, we’ll need to park the car seven overnights in a garage. The price will vary, of course, depending on the garage and city. With some searching, you can figure it out. In our case, we hunted around and found the following rates:

Florence garages (3 nights): €18 per day
Venice garages (2 nights): €20 per day in Piazzale Roma
Verona (1 night): €15 (approximate–couldn’t find specific rates)
Rome garage near Termini (1 night) : €28 per day

Total: €137 ($178)

7. Additional charges

There are certainly other considerations. Here are a couple of charges:

Will you pay extra for a GPS system? Baby car seat? Extra luggage rack?

Will you incur any traffic or speeding tickets? (Those can really get you—you’ll pay for the ticket, PLUS a “processing fee”! Read our earlier post about how speeding tickets make lousy souvenirs.)

Are you crossing any bridges or driving through tunnels?

Are you a young driver? In the case of our rental, the minimum driver age is 23, and drivers 23 and 24 years old will have to pay an extra fee.

Total: In our hopeful case, $0.

The bottom line

We’re ready for the fun part. Let’s add it up:

Car rental: $381
Insurance/CDW: $154
Gas: $175
Tolls: $74
Road tax: $18
Parking: $178
Additional charges: 0

Total: $980

Rather incredibly, the $381 car rental has ballooned to a $980 expense!

It’s not fun (for most people) to trudge through all of this data, but now we at least have an approximate total cost. Now we can more realistically compare this amount to the cost of taking the train between each of these destinations. We might even choose to take a budget flight between Venice and Rome.

Or we might still rent the car. The most important thing, however, is that we make an informed choice—and don’t wind up shocked by incidental costs.

Tell us about additional costs – and your experience

Have you been surprised by the “real cost” of renting a car in Europe? Did you notice a way for us to save on our hypothetical rental? Did we overlook another cost? Have a story to tell? Share your experience in our comments section.

The post How to calculate the “real cost” of renting a car in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Why, you ask? Allow us to demonstrate photographically what happened on a recent journey when we overlooked this critical step. Come, Cheapos, let’s take a ride…

Step 1: Fill ‘er up

Unleaded? Diesel? Who cares! Just fill ‘er up. In our case, we filled up a diesel-only car with unleaded gas.

Step 2: Hit the beach

Drive (a short distance) to a picturesque location and park the car. For us, it was Lake Como, Italy, where we spent the day swimming and frolicking, nary a care in the world.

Step 3: Try to start car and panic

When the car doesn’t start and you realize that you didn’t use diesel, go ahead and briefly freak out, perhaps for three or four minutes. Then, if you don’t speak Italian, do your best mime routine to the locals and hitch a ride on the back of their ninja motorcycle.

Step 4: Back to the beach

After repeating your mime act at the gas station – much to the delight of both yourself and the assembled audience – hop in a car with the head mechanic and drive back to your stranded car. (Preferably, your car ride should follow directly behind a circus trolley that is inexplicably carrying the head mechanic’s children.)

Step 5: Get towed

Watch with embarrassed relief as your car is hoisted onto the back of a flatbed truck to take you to the gas station.

Step 6: Say goodbye to paradise

Snap a photo and wave goodbye to Lake Como from inside the car (there’s not enough room in the truck’s cabin, natch) as you make your way to the gas station.

Step 7: De-gas and re-gas

Hang around the gas station and watch all the “bad gas” get sucked out of your car’s tank. Try not to concentrate on how much the gas originally cost. Pose confidently for a photo.

Step 8: Learn your lesson

Swear you’ll never do this again. Yet allow yourself to appreciate the experience you just had.

The post What happens when you put unleaded gas in a diesel rental car? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Check out these tips to save energy, time and money when arriving in Florence:

Lean toward Pisa (the airport, that is)

Florence has 1.5 airports. The official airport is Firenze Peretola, which is where most people arrive. However, there is also Pisa, Florence’s bratty little cousin. Pisa’s Galileo Galilei Airport has a longer runway and a higher volume of flights. (Pisa now sticks his tongue out.) Pisa also serves low-cost airlines such as Easyjet and Ryanair.

Getting into Florence from Pisa airport is easy. I recommend that you hop on the Terravision bus, which drops you right in downtown Florence at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station. The trip takes about an hour and a round-trip ticket will cost you €16. Be sure to book online, as the bus tends to fill up in the summer months.

A train also makes the journey, which takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. For more information see the “getting into Florence” article in our city guide.

Arriving at Florence’s airport

Florence’s airport is microscopic. And it’s old. But it doesn’t have to be unpleasant. I suggest going to the bathroom before you arrive (i.e., while you’re still on the plane) since there is only one stall per gender in the arrivals hall. Do take advantage of the free luggage carts and get ready to jockey for a position near the conveyor belt. Consider this a prelude to the challenges you’ll face lugging your heavy suitcase.

Florence is a city of cobblestone streets, razor-thin sidewalks and never-ending stairs. Elevators are as rare as unicorns and can be extremely small. So why not pack super light? A small suitcase will be easy on your watch and your sweat glands—remember that Florence is as hot as an oven during the summer months.

For your return flight, be sure to check the airport website to avoid commuting there for nothing: Because of the airport’s short runway and quick-changing weather, flights out of Florence are often delayed or diverted to Pisa.

Renting a car in Florence

So you’ve delightfully retrieved your lightweight suitcase, passed through customs and are possibly now ready to tackle another task: claiming your rental car. Turn left once liberated from the arrival hall and head out of the airport while staying to your left.

Here’s a tip: Have a hat and a (full) water bottle ready. The car rental desks are outdoors and you will be waiting under a scorching, merciless Tuscan sun. Plus, you could be in that waiting line for quite some time during peak summer months.

Bonus tip (because I’m such a nice guy): Keep your speed under 50 km/h when fleeing the airport. There are speed cameras set up all along the road to the city center. A speeding ticket makes a lousy souvenir.

For more information, also see our article on renting a car in Florence.

The ATAF Volainbus from the Florence airport

If you arrive at Florence’s airport, take a right from the arrival hall and exit the airport through the main entrance. Wiggle your way through the snake of idling taxis to get to the ATAF Volainbus. It is by no means a rocket, but it will get you downtown to the Santa Maria Novella train station in about 20 minutes. The bus departs every half hour. Tickets cost €4.50 can be purchased from the driver. Buy a round-trip ticket to save money.

Taxiing into town from the Florence airport

If you want to play big shot and take a taxi into downtown Florence, then expect to spend between €15-25, depending on traffic and extra charges. Know that there are extra charges for everything in an Italian taxi cab (luggage, pickup location, rotation of the moon, etc.). Should anyone successfully decode the logic of these charges, please alert the author.

Did you know?

Did you know that Florence’s airport has two official names? It also goes by Aeroporto Amerigo Vespucci, named after the famed Florentine explorer. Two names for an airport, only in Italy!

The post Florence Transportation: Tips on getting in from the airport appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.