Itinerary..11 nights

Unless you want to spend more time in transit than actually sight seeing, yes the Algarve is too much. The Algarve is mainly beaches and golf. There are better areas of Portugal to see.

Two nights ie one day isn’t enough to do justice to Lisbon.

Thank you Jennifer,

I will definitively add a night or two more to Lisbon.

In regard to the Algarve, I guess what was caused me too question is that Google Maps show it as a 3 hour drive from Lisbon, which is not terrible. But that is a long way to go just to see a beach.

Lisbon to the Algarve via the rather tedious toll road is c 4 hours once you encounter city traffic. The more interesting route closer to the coast is 5+ hours each way.

You could easily spend 3 days in Lisbon plus additional days by train from there including Cascais and Sintra.

I agree that dropping the Algarve is good with only 11 days in the country. I would suggest the bulk of your time in Lisbon and Porto. From Lisbon, you can see Sintra, Cascais and even Evora - all by train. From Porto, you could conceivably do day trips to Guimarães, Braga and the Douro valley. But, trying too see all of the places I mention is still too much for your time.
There are beaches closer to Lisbon and to Porto - if you need your beach fix.

Hello Once Again!

I have booked all accommodations for our days in Lisbon and Porto. The trip has expanded from 11 nights to 13 nights with 5 nights using Lisbon as a base and 2 nights in Porto. Given the time of year, is it necessary to pre-book accommodations in smaller towns such as Evora, Coimbra, etc? I would like to leave the rest of this vacation flexible and not lock us in to a given place on a given night? Also, we would like to spend 1 night in the Douro Valley as a base for exploration of that area. Any recommendation of town/city to stay?

We will have a car for our time outside of Lisbon and Porto.

Thanks again.. James

I would book even your nights in Evora and Coimbra. If you use booking.com, a lot of places allow cancellation up to a day or two before your stay. Portugal is becoming much more popular so leaving accommodations until you get here ( especially for the towns you mention) is really risking it IMO.