12 days in Portugal-Algarve or not?

If avoiding the Algarve, why not follow Ricks suggestions and do a one way rental. Finish up in Porto and train back to Lisbon.

•Lisbon (& Sintra)
•Évora
•Nazaré and nearby sights (Óbidos, Alcobaça, Batalha, Fátima)
•Coimbra
•Douro Valley
•Porto

I would not include Algarve in a less than two week trip, there is too much else to see in Portigal. Rick's book just seemed to suggest that most of it has been ruined anyway--but I live an hour's drive from the ocean, and Hawaii is within easy reach. My wife and I did a 14 night Portugal trip in 2008, and found Nazare to be a great beach stop. (Do your research, some have suggested here that Nazare is more overrun with tourists now). One thing that I feel strongly about is that you should stay overnight in Sintra for two nights. A day trip is not enough, really it's not! Also for me Lisbon was worth a solid five nights, four full days. I have never been to the Algarve but Evora, Porto--there is a lot to this wonderful country.

most of it has been ruined - actually much of it was built that way to start with! The Algarve was quite isolated until the 1960s when air travel became more available. Until then there was very little. Many resort areas have been built from nothing and will like their spanish counterparts go dead at some point in October. There are clusters (some large) of retirement homes for elderly british, dutch and germans which keep some economic activity going. And the golf courses which are the main/only winter season visitor attraction.

All the above replies have been extremely helpful. Thank you. I am not a beach dweller and perhaps did not realize how much the Algarve was simply that. I think we will re-route and do our traveling without Algarve. We can also fly home from Porto and leave car there.

Hi. I spent 3 days in The Algarve in May_June. It was wonderful. We stayed at a small hotel in Lagos. I dream every day of returning for another week. Lagos has a small walled city that was fun to explore for food and stuff. The small hotel is on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic. We spent time relaxing on the chaises on the lawn with prosecco. The small restuarant in the hotel was perfect. The Algave counytrside is beautiful. We took the train from Lisbon (6 Hrs) we rented a car to drive back (about 2 hours).

With your timescale and October travel, I wouldn't go to the Algarve, which is mostly for beaches and golf. The Alentenjo is a more attractive, traditional region or cover the area from Lisbon up to Porto.

My husband and I did a two-week tour of Portugal in July 2012. It looked something like:

Lisbon - 4 nights, with a day trip to Sintra (a must!)
Stop at Obidos (a must!)
Stop at Conimbriga (sp?) (very cool if you're into history, but probably not necessary if you've seen other more interesting ancient ruins in other countries)
Coimbra - 2 nights (that was more than enough time there. We probably won't go back now that we've seen it once.)
Porto - 3 nights (we LOVED Porto and could have stayed longer and will definitely return someday. I really wish we spent some time exploring the rest of the Douro valley and surrounding regions.)
Salema/Algarve - 3 nights. Took about 6 hours to drive there from Porto.
Lisbon - 2 nights (we had relatives in Lisbon and stayed at their home at both the beginning and end of our trip)

As others have indicated, Algarve is all about the beach. We stayed in Salema, which was super quiet and peaceful. We took a day trip to Lagos which was very nice, I might prefer to stay there next time I visit instead, there was more to do than in Salema. If you don't care for the beach, don't bother with the Algarve, spend more time in Lisbon and Porto instead! The algarve might be deserted in October anyhow, depending on how warm it will be that time of year.