I've decided to share my experiences on how to rent a car seamlessly if you're planning to visit Faro, or the Algarve coast in Portugal generally (Valid in 2019).

It all started when, after buying my flight ticket, I visited websites for car rentals in the area. I used the offer directly on the Ryanair website. After selecting a car, I paid for the rental using my debit card, only to then discover that the deposit, which you pay on-site when collecting the car, can only be paid with a credit card. Not cash, and not a debit card. By the way, the deposit was €1,200. After a more detailed look (yes, my mistake), I realised that the deposit must be paid using the same card with which I paid for the rental; therefore, it couldn't be combined. I had no choice but to cancel the rental and wait for the money to be refunded.

I told myself, it's fine, I'll go to the bank and apply for a credit card. But that's when the sweat broke out. It takes longer to issue the card than my planned arrival date. The bank offered the option to pay extra for urgent issuance, but £20 wasn't worth it to me.

A dilemma arose, unsure of what to do next. Fortunately, Uncle Google exists. In the Algarve, you can find car rental companies where a debit card is sufficient. However, there's one condition: you must purchase additional SCDW Plus insurance. The rental itself cost approximately €35, and there was an additional charge of around €21 for the green card, as we were travelling through Spain to Gibraltar. The rest was the insurance itself. In total, the rental from Sunday to Thursday cost us €121.

Another advantage of the additional insurance was that we didn't pay any deposit, just the rental fee itself, which we paid with a debit card on site. 

If you plan to drive on the motorway, we recommend informing the rental company. The car was equipped with a Via Verde transponder for electronic tolls on the A22 motorway, which runs along the entire Algarve coast. Please note, there is a €50 deposit for the transponder. This can be paid either by credit card or in cash on site. Of the €50, €5 is a registration fee, and the rest is for tolls. Any unused credit will be refunded upon return of the car. In older articles, we read that there is a special Via Verde lane on the A22 motorway that registers the transponder placed near the interior rear-view mirror. Currently, we have not seen any such dedicated lane, and there is a reader above each lane. The charges for individual sections vary, from €0.45 to €1.30. The Portuguese have it well thought out; important exit lanes to other cities are located beyond the sensors, meaning you beep, the credit is deducted, and you exit the motorway 50m later. 

The motorways are similar to ours, here and there potholes, here and there torn tyres. The roads seemed much emptier than ours, the maximum speed is 120 km. Their overtaking is also strange, they overtake you and immediately slot in front of you, but there are also some more decent exceptions 🙂 Actually, almost like ours.

However, overall I found it better to drive there, they have an awful lot of roundabouts and stop signs. For example, you're driving on a Class I road at 90 km/h and suddenly there's a roundabout. Before every roundabout, they have a large arrow, so at night you can tell from a distance about the approaching junction.

Together we covered over 1,500 km, without a single collision or scratch on the car (unless we're talking about driving in Gibraltar, but that's another story).

I hope these few lines have helped you with your planned car rental in the Algarve.

I'm also attaching the link through which we rented the car: www.farocar.com They have a booth in car park P4, right by the airport. Several companies share a booth there, and it seems to me that the rental is more advantageous than through larger companies, but I don't have any experience, so I can't compare.