Hi there!

Me and my family (all above 18 years old) are going to spend some days in Spain & Portugal.
We will be leaving Ronda straight to southern Portugal and spend one night there, before heading to Lisbon (4 days) and Porto (4 days). We will be travelling by car. We love scenic routes, small towns, hills, rivers, old cities.

Where would you spend one day/night? Tavira? Lagos? Abufeira? Faro? Any other?

Tks all!

I would make it Tavira if you only have one night. It's an old city with a small town feel, a hill (you can walk up to the Castelo at the top of it), and a really nice river. So it meets many of your qualifications.

Faro is not fun to drive in and out of. Albufeira is basically a commercialized beach resort that in January is deadsville. Lagos would be a nice choice too, in a precious sort of way, but it adds to your drive time a bit much, being a ways west of the route north to Lisbon.

driving a Spanish registered car in Portugal please read this to save you having to pay any fines.
http://www.portugaltolls.com/
Not driving the toll road could cost hours in travelling time.

Thank you dfourh & ribeirasacra for both replies. I definitely will go to Tavira and I certainly did not know about the toll's issue so thank you both again!