Car hire in Portugal

[cleo2002]

When we went to Portugal 4 years ago we hired a car through Economy Car Hire. I think they were a broker because the car was supplied by Luz Cars. Economy Car Hire seem to have changed their name to Zest but do they still use Luz Cars?

Does anyone have any other recommendations for car hire in Portugal?

[GrahamPlatt]

No recommendations, just one to avoid; "goldcar".

[Clariman]

Last time we used http://www.bestdeal-algarve.com/ but booked via holidayautos

[Regdragon]

Agree with Clariman, don't go anywhere near Goldcar.

We always fly into Faro and use Zitauto and they have always been fair and reasonable.

Regards

RD

[Regdragon]

Apologies - it was GrahamPlatt's suggestion not to touch Goldcar. Absolutely seconded!

[cleo2002]

Recs for all! Many thanks.

[alterego]

Am regular visitor to Faro and returned from there on Thursday. I use Zest to book cars and always use Lagorent who provide good cars at reasonable prices. Faro airport charge rental companies to use the car park so many, including Lagorent, have moved to a depot outside the airport perimeter. The way it works is once you have cleared passport check and baggage claim, you proceed to departure hall and look for someone holding a Lagorent board. This person normally stands at the far end of the hall. Once you find them, they escort you to a pickup point in the car park, a minibus arrives and takes you to the depot (a few minutes drive). There you do the paperwork and take your car away.

If the rep is not there, they will probably just be escorting another passenger to the minibus so be prepared to wait 5 minutes or so.

All Lagorent cars have a transponder to pay motorway tolls. There's a €5 fee for this but it's a convenient way to pay the tolls which get charged to your credit card when you get home.

Returning the car is easy. Just arrive at the depot, quick check for damage, then get driven back to airport. Whole process takes 10 minutes.

Lagorent operate a fuel policy that asks you to return the car with same amount of fuel as when you collected the car.

I've used them about 10 times so far, never had any issues with the cars or the process.

[Slarti]

When we went in May, after asking on the Holiday & Travel board at the Fool, I used http://www.travelrent.pt/

Got a car as describes, easy pickup and dropoff at the airport, Car clean and reasonably new.

Prices competitive.

Recommended by MrsBluenose, now by me also.

[Slarti]

Forgot to add a link to the thread

http://boards.fool.co.uk/faro-airport-car-hire-13327281.aspx?sort=whole#13382506

[rockdoctor]

Two tips;
I rented with Hertz at Porto airport. Normally I wouldn't look at them because of their high prices, but I found a tip online; - book through their US website and pay in dollars. The prices were FAR lower, and comparable with the cheapos.
An extra benefit with Hertz was that they were able to rent me the autopay dashboard gadgets for the road tolls. Portugal has two different road toll systems, one of which is entirely automatic and doesn't offer a cash option. Paying the tolls can be tricky.

As it was, all I heard was a 'peep' occasionally from the dashboard as we drove around. Then small charges were taken off my credit card for the next 6 months! (It stopped in the end, and the sums didn't add up to a huge amount).

[Slarti]

Two tips;
An extra benefit with Hertz was that they were able to rent me the autopay dashboard gadgets for the road tolls. Portugal has two different road toll systems, one of which is entirely automatic and doesn't offer a cash option. Paying the tolls can be tricky.

As it was, all I heard was a 'peep' occasionally from the dashboard as we drove around. Then small charges were taken off my credit card for the next 6 months! (It stopped in the end, and the sums didn't add up to a huge amount).

With TravelRent, a toll thing it was provided and you paid €20 as a rental fee for it, but they took the tolls off that. You only had to pay more if your tolls went to over the deposit. If you didn't use the tolls at all they give you your €20 back.

The only downside was that I had to email them to ask for prices, but to counter that, unlike the big boys, they offer a truly on airport service. No transfer bus involved on arrival or departure.

[digitaria]

My recommendation for car hire in Portugal is ... hire in Spain and drive to Portugal! It was very much cheaper to do this, last time I looked. We were holidaying in the Algarve, but flew to Seville, rented the car there and drove. I believe we used Hertz. There is no problem taking the car across the border. It's a bit of a drive from Seville to the Algarve, but it's a pleasant drive and the roads are not congested. HTH, digitaria

[mutantpoodle]

I always use/used ECH most excellent to deal with

if you want an answer ring them up and ask them!

[bruncher]

I always use/used ECH

Hi mutantpoodle is ECH the company name? Or acronym for Eurocar?

[alterego]

I think ECH refers to Economy Car Hire but they have changed name to Zest

[mutantpoodle]

yes ECH is economy car HIRE

note it is NOT

economy car rental! which I believe is a greek company

and yes I believe they have changed their name
but you can still ring a UK number and talk with a real person...not a computer