Recommendations for Portugal please

[seaswimming]

We are hoping to go to Portugal for the first time this summer. Love the look of Carvoeiro so thinking of doing a week there in the Monte Santo resort. We always like to split our fortnights holiday and stay in 2 different places though - any recommendations of somewhere reasonably close (we don't want to spend all day travelling on the middle weekend) but different to spend our second week? We have 3 children who are 8, 10 and 13. We are all quite sporty - love swimming, snorkelling, surfing etc. We prefer smaller / quieter places to huge resorts and definitely want to stay somewhere that we can walk to the local town /village. Prefer s/c. Happy with villa / apartment / aparthotel. I was wondering about Sagres?
Any suggestions very gratefully received.

Look at the East Algarve - Tavira and Fuzeta areas. This is where the Portuguese go on holiday. It's so lovely - little islands off the beaches. Great restaurants. Great value. Lots of apartments for rent privately.

jassmells you beat me to it! lovely area. Fabulous food. Usually local festivals to join in with. Sea can be very cold though, but I think that is a feature of many Portuguese resorts!

Don’t bother with Praia de Luz etc.

Thanks so much, I'll have a look at those areas.

Look at Villa near Alte. You can swim at river in town and waterfalls.

I quite liked Cascais, but we haven’t been anywhere else in Portugal.
Taking note also of places mentioned on this thread.

Lisbon is amazing with loads to do in area by train such as sintra and beaches