Flying into Malaga or should I consider....

[travelplanner70]

Lisbon or Faro, Portugal and then driving to Malaga? I have no idea if driving through Portugal is a safe car ride to Malaga? I have no idea how long it would take to get to Malaga from Lisbon or Faro? (Mapquest does not do Portugal.) How is TAP airlines or Spanair? Is there a cheaper way to fly if you fly into London and then take a low-cost airline from London to Spain (if there are any low-cost airlines left)? Airfares are very high (and I thought Hawaii was high this year) so anything I can do to lower the fare for 4 people would be great.

I thank you for any guidance you can offer. As you can tell I am confused.

 

[Blues]

Driving in Spain and Portugal is similar to driving in the US (except for the traffic circles, which take some getting used to). Last Sept, DW & I flew into Lisbon and then drove to Seville, Granada, Malaga/Marbella, around the Costa del Sol, to Faro Portugal, and all around the Algarve. We then dropped the car in Faro and flew to London. It's safe and relatively easy.

I don't use mapquest much, but google maps covers all of Europe. It shows Faro to Malaga as being just over 4 hours, which sounds about right. It's almost all freeway (4 lane divided). Lisbon to Faro is about 2.5 hours, almost all tollway. Lisbon to Malaga is about 6.5 hours.

Most auto rental companies in Europe will allow one-way rentals with no drop fee, as long as you drop the car off in the same country as you rented it. It's difficult to find a rental where you can drop it in a different country.

-Bob
P.S. Don't forget to factor in the cost of gasoline, which is very high over there.

 

[GregGH]

Hi

There are some GREAT side trips and small towns to see along the way --give yourself some extra time and have the trip of a lifetime.

Greg

 

[mamadot]

Flew TAP from Newark to Lisbon to Cape Verde, Africa in Feb. They where great....would fly them again.