Getting from Malaga/Seville to Lisbon

Hi, my mom, dad, sister and I are travelling around Andalusia and Lisbon this Christmas & New Year. What would be the best way to get between Malaga or Seville and Lisbon? The only nonstop flight is over 200 Euros per Person oneway and one way international car rentals are almost the same if not more expensive. What other options do we have? We need to leave for Lisbon on the 31st or 1st.

A one way car rental is more than 800€?? I very much doubt that.

There are buses from Seville and Lisbon. About 6 or 7 hours, ouch. I think there are quite a few companies operating these services, I only know of two.

• Spanish company ALSA operates two daily daytime buses, €35
• Portuguese company InterNorte operates one daytime and one nighttime bus (nighttime leaves Seville at midnight), €32. The nighttime bus actually comes from further afield, so you can start on it in Malaga at 9pm for 3 more hours of fun.

There are probably other bus companies.

You if want to minimize bus BIS time you could take a bus to Faro (Internorte and Eva Transportes both operate Sevilla-Faro) which is only 3 hours, and get a rental car or train or flight from there.

Keep in mind this is New Years Eve and New Years Day.

Of thouse options, I'd instinctivly sooner travel on New Years Eve, but early in the day.

I was just in the Malaga bus station last week and noticed a company with direct buses to Lisbon. I'm pretty sure Seville would have the same - just make sure to find out which station they leave from (as they have two stations).

Avis will not allow me to do a pick up in Spain and drop off in Portugal; Hertz actually quoted US$ 1225.00 for a 2 day rental in the last week of December picking up in Malaga and dropping off in Lisbon. WOW.

I looked at trains but there is no direct route to Lisbon;
If you decide to go to Madrid and then take the night train to Lisbon you get to see Madrid along the way and the cost on raileurope.com is aprox 220 US$ per person for one way - similar to the flight you were quoted.

A round trip flight with Iberia comes out to US$ 200 from Malaga to Lisbon; you can always throw away the return portion; A one way trip for the last week of December comes to US$ 160 but has two stops: Malaga to Barcelona to Madrid to Lisbon with Spanair.

You most economical way would be to take a bus.
Can you change your return flight and leave out of Spain instead? then you can rent a car in Malaga, drive around, go to Lisbon by car (no big deal) and then drive back into Spain, drop off the car and fly out of Spain.

I am pretty sure that this is because in Portugal it's illegal to rent a car with foreign license plates. If you drop off a foreign car in LIS, a Hertz employee has to drive the car back to Spain, and then get him/herself back to LIS. Expensive.

I guess Strasbourg has not made a ruling about car rentals yet.

Your (reasonable) public transport choices are:
1. Take the day bus (7-8 hrs)
2. Take the overnight bus (same amount of time, you get in around 7-8AM)
3. Take the AVE to Madrid and fly to LIS. This should be a bit faster and maybe cheaper than the buses.
4. Fly to Madrid and then to LIS. Ryanair has good deals on the flights to Madrid (I'm sure the competition does too) and there are enough cheap flights between LIS and MAD. Look into RT flights as those tend to sometimes be cheaper than OW flights on legacies (IB, TP). Easyjet and AirEuropa also operate on this route.

Portugal's motorways have tolls on them, so consider that and the fuel prices when you decide on renting a car. No way to avoid one-way fees that I know of.