Living in the states, I never gave transportation a second thought. Granted, I had a dependable automobile and therefore, would just hop in and go to and from my various destinations. Of course there were several times when I purchased an airline ticket to travel somewhere further away.

I knew that when we left the USA that we would have to depend on public transportation, but never realized to the extend that would mean.  We have done it all now…. buses, taxis, Ubers, subway trains, local trains, high speed trains, airplanes, car rentals,  scooter rentals, private hire drivers, and Tuktuk rides.

A large part of this epic-adventure is trying to figure out public transportation!! We have had to do a lot of research to figure out what our options may be, which one is the cost effective, the safest, or the fastest. This can take hours online or on the phone- especially when there is a language barrier. (I suggest having a nice bottle of vino available to make the experience more enjoyable.)

I wish I could say that we are savy travelers that only came with backpacks. I cannot. We travel “heavy” due to the fact that we are traveling for an entire year.  This required bringing along summer AND winter clothing. We have experienced difficulty finding adequate transportation due to this.  In Europe, the cars are very small. We would request a taxi and they would pull up and see all of our luggage, and say “no, sorry,” and actually DRIVE AWAY!! All we could do was laugh and try to call another. We quickly switched over to Uber, as we could pick the appropriate size of car that we needed.

Renting a car was also a struggle because of their size options. A very small SUV there is considered a”luxury sedan” and therefore costs twice as much. We also required the car have a built in navigation systems, as our phones did not work without Wifi. Manuvering through an unknown city or country without a map or directions of any sort, was NOT an option.

The most “luxurious” experience was when we hired a private driver to take us from Spain to Portugal.It was a beautiful, large SUV with plenty of room to stretch out for the 6 hour ride. We were not concerned with reading road signs,how to get the proper fuel,or passing over the border from one country to another. I highly recommend this if possible, as it was very pleasant, peaceful and relaxing.

The most “fun” was renting scooters for the month while in Portugal. All of our luggage was safely at the house and we could just hop on one and go into town for supplies. The weather was nice and town was only a few kilometers away.

The “cheapest” mode of transportation are the trains and buses. The only tricky part is trying to figure out where to buy tickets and which one to get on.   However, once you figure it out there is need to worry about standing in long lines at the airport to check in, and no luggage limitations which is awesome!  Most of them have electronic outlets at each seat, free wifi, comfy seats, and bathrooms available also!

Keep in mind, most of the time you will have to use multiple modes of transportation to get to your destination. You may have to change buses or leave the train to hop into a taxi, to catch another bus, etc.  For example, when we rented a car to drive from Barcelona to Narila, Quinn had to drive it to Grenada the next day and then figure out how to find the bus station and take a 2 hour ride back to the mountains of Narila!

We also found the train/bus system way better in Portugal than in Spain!  In Spain the stations were not close to each other so in order to take a train and then a bus you had to pay for a taxi in between.  But in Portugal they were all right next to each other and it was so easy!

Wherever YOUR epic adventure takes you, doing transportation research is necessary. Hopefully this blog gave you some insight. Safe travels to you all.