Rental Car Convenience
When we travel to a new country or location, we like to be able to drive around and see the sights at our leisure. Consequently, before leaving Canada, I had arranged for a rental from Budget at the Lisbon airport. However, since we planned to spend the first three nights in Lisbon, we did not actually pick the car up until the day we left the city.I was not sure what size car to rent because of the size of our two main suitcases. In the end, we went for a low-end Compact with unlimited mileage, which turned out to be a Fiat Punto. The two suitcases only just squeezed into the hatchback rear, but there was also room for our backpacks off to the side of them when necessary.The Punto had manual transmission, no air conditioning and no CD player. However, it was fun to drive, economical on gas (pump price was E1.07/litre or US$4.65/US gallon), could handle the 130-kph superhighway speeds...
