A few comments: First do your preferred ten days in Portugal include the day you fly in, and the day you fly out? For in that case, you'll have only eight full days in the country -- not quite adequate, in my opinion, but still better than not going to Portugal at all.

Second, I got back just three days ago from a 12-day (full days) Portugal trip in which I flew into, and out of, Porto -- the airport is very nice. And if you do end up spending your last night at the Porto airport, consider the Park Hotel. As airport hotels go, it's not too expensive, though they make up for it a bit in their restaurant -- but their buffet-style meals are very good.

Third, if you stick to the Porto -- Lisbon -- Algarve itinerary you mentioned, you will probably be able to manage everything by train. As an applied statistician by profession I'm a little skeptical about the value of quick-and-easy statistics like the one mentioned a few comments above; but as this is not the place for a statistical dissertation, I'll just point out that for me, the heavy traffic of big cities like Porto and Lisbon, the narrow, confusing streets of Portugal's thousand-year-old towns, and the many tricks and scams that car-rental agencies seem to be adept at these days, would cancel out whatever flexibility a rented car might provide. Wherever possible I would prefer to avoid those stresses, and enjoy Portugal's great grain system.

Fourth, on Sintra: after two trips to Portugal, I still haven't seen Sintra (and the tourist police never kicked in my hotel door late at night to find out why). And not having seen Sintra, I'm not in a good position to judge, but like you, I doubted whether it was for me. I'm sure Sintra is great for the right kind of tourist, and perhaps you are that kind; but grand fairly-tale castles for fancy aristocrats just aren't my scene, especially when they're likely to be smothered by tourist masses. Basically, a long time ago I abandoned the "must-see" approach to travel, in favor of a "mind-of-my-own" approach, and I've never regretted it -- I recommend that same approach to those who are so inclined.

We spent a few weeks in Portugal, with the first six great nights in Lisbon and the last four in Porto. Below is my trip report link with a million photos (more or less). FYI, we spent three nights in Sintra, too, and absolutely loved it there. Porto was our favorite. Loved the vibe there.

https://travelswithmaitaitom.com/portugal-2022/

You may find our trip report helpful-https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/wonderful-portugal-1713270/

Great links, great reports, great summaries, and great opinions and advice.

I'm finalizing:
Dates in September (most likely mid Sept)
Route we will take (most likely fly into Porto, then train to Lisbon, then train to Algarve, rent a car, then drive to Lisbon for the final night before flying back)
Lengths of stay in each (most likely 3 in Porto, 2 in Lisbon, 4 in Algarve, and 1 at airport in Lisbon)
Areas within each region (most likely Ribeira or Baixa/Downtown in Porto, Baixa/Chiado in Lisbon, and either Lagos or Carvoeiro in the Algarve).

We will search for the best hotels that suit our needs. We want local charm, clean, with great locations, walkable to most everything. Not looking for anything too fancy or too expansive with one exception, that is in the Algarve. Once in awhile we do splurge and the Tivoli Carvoeiro may be the time to splurge. Looks like it is in a great location with beautiful scenery. However, Lagos may be the better choice for us.

Always appreciate any comments on anything.

Thanks, W

Late to this thread...

Algarve: maybe check out beach-side Salema?
Remote village: Marvao.
Island recco: Madeira.
Bilbo remarks 'Portugal is the sixth most dangerous road country in the EU'. He is right.
My friend and I were almost killed there back in '88. Close call on Xmas day!

I am done. the brigado brigade

Hello, I went to Portugal last August and have some comments that will differ from most on this board. We LOVED Lisbon and were not great fans of Porto. Lisbon felt like a small and important, beautiful city with lots of history. We are not big wine wine drinkers and apart from one day in the Douro Valley and a day or day and a half to see the main sites in Porto, we found it to be very congested and not terribly pretty or unusual. I would therefore reverse my day count between these two cities.

I found it particularly hard to plan this trip given the many different viewpoints on this site. In the end, we spent about 4 days in Lisbon, 1-2 days in Sintra and 3 days in Porto including the Douro Valley. We did not rent a car which I ultimately was disappointed about since there were wildfires in the region and it would have given us much more flexibility to modify our plans. We did not need a car in Lisbon, Sintra or Porto though.

We were very pleased with the location of our hotels and you can check some of my earlier posts since I commented specifically about this.

Hope this helps though imagine it may confuse you further!

I appreciate all feedback and different opinions. It just helps me consider all options.

And appreciate all the links provided.

I am very impressed by the International Design Hotel in Lisbon.

Stil finalizing.

Thanks again, W

I'm flying in and out of Lisbon this June. We have a very early arrival so we've decided to take a train directly to the Algarve and spend 4 nights there. Return to Lisbon for 4 nights, where we'll take a day trip to Sintra (nothing set in stone yet). Seems trains and ubers are easy and not expensive. Porto doesn't seem to be an option for us due to time constraints. If Lisbon doesn't appeal to you, just do Porto and Algarve.

Just a reply since so fresh in my mind . . . Ubers are very easy though we did one from Sintra to Porto (crazy I know, though we had heavy bags and decided to leave very early since the sites were closed in Sintra) and the driver accepted the fare and then reneged so we agreed to pay him out of pocket. (Apparently, this is quite common for long distance trips since the driver needs to do the round-trip and Uber takes such a huge chunk of the fare.). During the trip (the driver drove a Mercedes), we learned the car was electric and to save power, he drove like 40 mph! So what was supposed to be 3 to 3.5 hours, turned out to be 5 hours plus!

We did end up taking the train back from Porto to Lisbon and out hotel booked us for the wrong stop or train to Lisbon so we had to Uber for 30 minutes when the right train stop was 3 blocks from our hotel!

Hope this helps someone out there!

Thanks for the heads up.

My plan is to take trains between Porto and Lisbon and Algarve and then rent a car in Algarve so that we may explore that region. Then we plan on driving back to Lisbon airport for one night. Most likely at the Melia.

We plan to drive to Sintra on our way from Algarve to Lisbon to make the most of our time.

Still trying to finalize hotels in Ribeira, Porto, Baixa/Chiado in Lisbon, and tossed between Lagos in Algarve or split 2 nights in Lagos and 2 in Carvoeiro.

Thanks, W