raz1024

We(3 friends) have 9 full days in Portugal in late October. Our plan is for a road trip in the Algarve area after a couple days in Lisbon finishing up in Sintra for our last two nights.

Our plan so far: 2 full days/2 nights in Lisbon(we arrive early morning), then drive rental car to Evora, and from there to the Algarve area, returning up the west coast and spending the last full day (2 nights) at Sintra. We have already booked accommodation in Lisbon for our first 2 days/2 nights and Sintra for our last one day/2 nights.
We have 6 full days and 5 nights in between and need to end up in Sintra at the end of the 6th day.

We will likely arrive in Evora mid-morning on a Sunday and would like to spend a little time looking around there (spend a night?). From Evora, we will drive down to the Algarve area. What is the best way to explore the Algarve? Should we take a home base around Albufeira/Faro so that we can take day trips in either direction to Tavira on the east and Sagres on the west?

We are interested in exploring and are not interested in staying in a "resort" type place. Initially, we were thinking we would "wing it" as far as accommodations go(we were told this is very doable at this time of year?), but are wondering if a home base to explore would be better. If so, where would you recommend a home base? Or would it be better to have 2 nights at 2 different places along the Algarve coast. Part of our 6th day will be driving back up to Sintra (that will be the Friday).

Looking for helpful your suggestions or comments in planning our itinerary for our "road" trip.
Thanks!

MoBro

Why Sintra? It is a nice day-trip, but staying 2 nights would have been way too much for us.

I'd add nights to Lisbon. It's a fantastic city.

Visiting Cascais is a great day-trip from Lisbon, as well.

raz1024

I appreciate your comments.
This was our thinking:
Since we fly out of Lisbon at the end of our trip and wanted to visit Sintra, we thought it would be better use of our time to visit both Cascais and Sintra(we actually have only one full day there) on our return back up the coast from Algarve. Instead of spending a last night in Lisbon for an early morning flight and having to worry about car parking, we thought it would work better just to stay in Sintra and drive to the airport from there, since it is pretty close.

We can add on another day at the front end of our trip to Lisbon if that is advisable (for seeing Lisbon), but to add on extra days for day trips out of Lisbon, we were thinking our plans were the way to go. Adding an extra day in Lisbon however, would take away from our time traveling south, but we would appreciate any comments about what we can accomplish in the limited amount of time we have.

BTW Our accommodations in both Lisbon and Sintra are already arranged.

Lisbon_Eagle

As long as you remember that A37/IC19 can be pretty troublesome in working days' rush hours, no problem. No rush to visit Sintra...

raz1024

Thanks Lisbon_Eagle. What time would you recommend leaving Sintra in order to get to the Lisbon Airport auto returns by 6am on a Sunday morning? In the past, in other cities, we have found the auto returns not the easiest to get to...
Also, do you know if there are gas fill-up stations open at that time of the morning in order to return the car on a full tank?

Does anyone have comments or suggestions for the road trip ie. Evora and Algarve. Would you propose we have a home base along the south from which to do road trips? Or start at Tavina and just work our way across to Sagres? Would we have any problem getting reasonable accommodations along the way if not previously booked? If we had in mind a good home base, we would likely book something ahead of time.

Are there some recommended "must do's" either along the coast or inland?

Thanks!

MoBro

Does one drive through Sintra on the way to Lisbon from the Algarve?
Is Sintra closer to the airport than Lisbon?

Macross

Following, am looking at Algarve also. I want to do the boat tour with the caves. Trying to decide which tour and where to stay.
https://tarugatoursbenagilcaves.pt/

raz1024

MoBro, the drive from Sintra to Lisbon Airport is not much longer than from Lisbon Center - maybe 10 minutes longer. As mentioned, it is for convenience of our itinerary that we plan to stay there.

Macross, we are planning to do a caves tour. It looks like it needs to be booked online ahead with this company. Need to decide whether to do a boat tour or a kayak tour - the kayak tour looks appealing.
What month will you be there? After September, the hours change.
A boat trip to Parque Natural da Ria Formosa also looks appealing.
I will do another post about accommodation along the Algarve area.

MoBro

I see. Thanks for responding, raz. We went to Sintra via train, so I don't have a good sense for how long it takes to drive it.

Have fun in Portugal. We absolutely loved it there.

Lisbon_Eagle

While most gas stations opens at 7am, few at 6h30, the airport' stations are open 24hours.

Besides, Sunday morning, late October... unless there's some kind of accident, unlikely, you will have no problems.

"Does one drive through Sintra on the way to Lisbon from the Algarve?
Is Sintra closer to the airport than Lisbon?"

The Algarve-Lisbon connection is direct south-north. Sintra is to the NORTHWEST of Lisbon. You won't be anywhere near Sintra on your way to Lisbon, unless you make a strange detour.

Besides, there is a misunderstanding around here.

Lisbon's civil airport is actually IN the city of Lisbon.

Therefore Sintra is a little far away. You will need to take the highways here. While in Lisbon, the avenues. There's around 20km's difference. Obviously highways are faster... but the airport has nothing to do with Sintra, while it has everything to do with Lisbon.

MoBro

That's what I thought, Lisbon_Eagle.

Macross

Raz, we are going last week of Sept. I am researching now. We were going to do public transportation but the bus and train from Rota, Spain is many hours. I would kayak if the seas are calm.

raz1024

Lisbon_Eagle, thanks for your info.
It looks like I need to apoligize for my wording in my return to Sintra prior to flying out of Lisbon. I realize it is west of Lisbon, but it is not a long drive to the airport - we are used to drives of 1.5-2.5+ hours where I live to the most convenient international airport, so the difference between driving from Lisbon or from Sintra does not really phase us... Having said that, we will be staying in Sintra the end of our trip - as I mentioned, the accommodation is already arranged and we have our purposes for ending there.

Putting that subject behind us, we are looking for helpful information for the remainder of our itinerary.

Macross, here are some websites I have come across that may be helpful to you:
http://www.algarveexperiences.com/se...algarve-towns/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxNMlaHyyuY
http://www.cntraveller.com/recommend...coast-portugal
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2...ecret-portugal

Our plan so far:

Day 1(Fri)Lisbon: arrival early morning - realizing we will be tired, we drop off luggage @ apartment in Alfama (having a nap is not an option as not able to check in) then:
Tram 28 - ride part or all the route to highest lookout (Miradouro da Senhora do Monte) then start walking down and visit sites along the way, dinner & early night

Day 2(Sat)Lisbon: morning Alfama markets, aft Belem, eve Fado music
- from all I've read, it seems like we are short-changing Lisbon hugely but that may have to be for another trip, when we return and travel north Portugal...unless someone has some useful ideas for helping us organize the following itinerary...(PLEASE - no further discussion on Sintra!! lol)

Day 3(Sun)Pick up rental car and drive approx. 1.5 hrs to Evora: Visit Igreja de Sao Francisco, Templo Romano, Capela dos Ossos (accommodation outside central Evora - primarily for ease of parking) -not booked

Day 4(Mon): Ebora Metalithica - ?visit on own or book a tour in the morning; in afternoon, drive approx. 3 hrs to an undecided base in central Algarve (central seems best for visiting both east and west) - hoping for a more "authentic" accommodation experience rather than highrise/hotel/resort experience - looking for accommodation recommendations/suggestions (4 nights)

Day 5, 6, 7(Tues,Wed,Thurs):
Explore Algarve: some thoughts - ??How best to divide our travels here in the short time we have to explore - what is a "must", what is a "miss"?? Can we use part of Day 8 for one of these visits before we head to Sintra for the night (approx. 3 hr drive from central Algarve)?

Tavira on east
Inland Algarve: visit pretty castle towns/historic villages
Benagil caves by boat tour or preferably kayak
Boat to Parque Natural da Ria Formosa from Olhao
"Old town"
Sagres/Cabo de Sao Vicente

Day 8(Fri): Drive back up towards Sintra, ?visit Cascais

Day 9(Sat): Sintra: Castle of the Moors, Pena Palace

Day 10(Sun): flight home

Appreciate any helpful advice you may have! Thanks very much!!

MoBro

If you want lunch or dinner in Cascais, there is an elegant hotel that sits right at the water.
Cascais is tiny and you can't miss this hotel. Very expensive, but lunch prices were ok, for the gorgeous table over the water.
The Albatroz Hotel: http://www.thealbatrozcollection.com...albatroz-hotel

raz1024

Correction: Day 5-7 - the 2nd last line should read "old town" Lagos

MoBro - Thx for the suggestion - looks great - will definitely look into it!

raz1024

Thank you Paulo! Will investigate further your suggestions and the websites.
Have you any comments on winging it as far as accommodations go during our road trip? Or do you think having a central place maybe near Albufeira booked, is best in the last week of October?
Just thinking abt flexibility of visiting towns and sites and no knowing how much time we need or will want to take...
I like the idea of having flexibility and being spontaneous but also dont want to be stuck and scrambling for a place - can add unneeded stress.

MoBro

We liked Cascais so much, we returned to that area another day. We got off the train from Lisbon at Estoril, the stop right before Cascais. You can walk to Cascais along the waterfront from Estoril. It's very close.

For a more rustic, less expensive meal, we found a fish shack right on the sand at Estoril. Great fish sandwiches.