The Algarve everyone knows — the golden sea stacks, the crowded summer beaches, the all-inclusive resorts — is real. But it's a small part of a region that has cork oak forests, protected Atlantic coastline, Moorish architecture, wetland nature reserves, and some of the most characterful small hotels in Portugal.

The accommodation on this list exists across all of it. The best version of an Algarve trip (in our humble opinion) usually combines at least two of these areas: a few days in the backcountry west, a few days in the east near Tavira, and as much time as possible on the beaches in between.

Most people visit Sintra as a day trip from Lisbon. We get it — it's only 40 minutes by train, the palaces are right there, and the Instagram shots basically take themselves. But if you leave when the last bus goes, you miss what Sintra actually is.

Stay overnight and you get the village after the tour groups have gone. Cobblestone streets with no one on them. The fog rolling in off the Serra de Sintra as the light fades. The Pena Palace turning a deep orange in the last hour of sun. And, if you venture towards the sea, you’ll find sweeping ocean views all to yourself. A completely different place from the one 20,000 day-trippers saw.

The other thing nobody tells you: Sintra has some of the most characterful boutique accommodation in all of Portugal. Converted manor houses on century-old estates. Cliff-top guesthouses with rooms named after the Atlantic light. Former town halls turned into seven-suite hotels. The options are unique, and unlike Lisbon, they haven't been swallowed up by big chains yet.

Here's where to stay in Sintra, broken down by area.