CHOPPER

The Via Verde desk in the city shop in Tavira is no longer there.

Monkeynut

This is what the car hire people have advised, I wonder how much extra they will charge for admin and whether or not they will show evidence to support the charges, probably not as being done retrospectively:

Please be advised that usually everytime you pass the gate of motorway the system registers it and send bill to car owner (the rental company). Afterwards they charge your credit card according to the bill they receive. Due to administration procedures you may be charged even within a month after you end your rental.

Kind regards,

CarTrawler Travel Advisor

TELL

To my Knowledge NO hire car company has actually stated what it intends to do.
Confusions still reigns.

Jon-Bxl

Yes - we use car trawler as well but as Ive said before - I dont accept this. How do we know we are being billed properly and I dont want to leave a credit card open. (Blank cheque).

The only way I can see this working is to have a printout when we take the car to see the 'units used' and one at the end - the difference is what I am prepared to pay. But to leave it in the hands of the smaller car companies (even the big ones) - and their poor tracking and admin systems is too much.

This hasnt been thought out for rental scenario's. I am even OK to pay tolls as long as there is a proper secure system to use the transponder data and for us to pay what we use ... and NO MORE!

I read in the Algarve resident - everyone is resigned to the introduction of these tolls.

Jon

Monkeynut

I agree with you Jon, all in all, a total pain in the backside. Like you, I'm happy to pay my dues but need some kind of security because I don't trust the car hire peeps to care enough to ensure the charges they make are transparent or accurate

Jon-Bxl

We had a nice walk yesterday from Altura to Manta Rota.... a coffee and cake and walk back along the beach and 'boardwalks' Its been a while since we were there. it was really good to see the indoor market open on a Sunday and the public loos looked clean and well maintained..... We always liked M-Rota before and theyve made some really good improvements to Manta Rota over the past couple of years.

Looks like with these crazy tolls we will be doing more walking!!!

Golfister

There's a really nice restaurant just by the start of the boardwalk down to the beach at Manta Rota, on the left hand side. It looks just like a beach cafe but if you go in to the restaurant bit, the food is delicious - chocolate mousse desert to die for - and good service.

I can't remember the name exactly in Portuguese, but translated it means something like "tea and hot water".

I'm not connected to it in any way, it's just one of our favourites and I don't often see it get mentioned anywhere. Worth a try!

newintavira

I know the one you mean. We've had a really good razor clam rice in there....

Monkeynut

It's called Cha com Agua Salgado and it is indeed fab

Golfister

Yep that's the one!

We've gone a bit off topic of the thread here, so apologies - but good to give the resto a bit of a mention

MikeJ

Car Hire companies have been known to relocate their cars between depots - who knows which companies will avoid the temptation to charge the tolls incurred to the last renter!

newintavira

Is it just me or has everything re the tolls gone eerily quiet lately? Shouldn't they be in place by now?

MikeJ

The Government has indicated that the tolls will be in place by the end of the year (see Algarve Resident) but it is still deciding on a fair way of collecting the tolls (in addition to the transponder device for Portugal residents) for foreiegn visitors and hire cars. The Spanish Government has gone to the EU on the basis of harm to local economy - 100's of thousands of visitors to Huelva province come via Faro airport. I can't see that getting very far as the EU transport Directorate has stated policies of "user pays" for all public transport. The opposition from other Portuguese political parties seems to have forced a rethink on collection systems if not on the principle of tolls.

The_Hog

Personally I am not really against the tolls. It's the method of paying for it that I don't like.
Why can't there be toll booths? That way everyone that uses it pays, be they foreign registered or local.
Those frequent users can still use a transponder if they wish.
This way also provides employment.
A win win situation surely?

Joao

Instead of doing it the easy way and putting toll booths up like a lot of countries do, they have elected to make it as complicated as possible. I know they have this 'transponder' method in the north of Portugal, but one shoe does not fit all. If they had installed the manned booths then it would have been up and running by now, I wonder how much money they have wasted? (Or have they had another hand out from the EU - just like they did to fund the A22 in the first place)
Joao