Further post of mine from Tripadvisor.com forums.
It is madness and likely to result in a decrease of 50%+ in the number of Spanish Tourists that drive over for the week-end in my estimation.
It is now over 3 months since tolls were mooted and despite articles in both the Portuguese and English press and blogosphere nothing has changed. I was speaking to the director of a well-established local car hire firm recently and he confirmed that no movement has happened yet on the toll issues from the perspective of the car hire firms. They are waiting on the Portuguese Govt.
My advice to folk wanting to visit the Western Algarve, from April 2011 onwards, is to now fly to Lisbon if they can, have a couple of days in Lisbon and take a train or bus down to Lagos and hire a car here. Alternatively, fly to Seville, have a couple of days there, take one of the two daily buses to Lagos and hire a car here. These options, which are direct, at least, mean that one doesn't have to get at least two types of public transport to get from Faro Airport, to say Lagos, if one really doesn't want to go to the expense of hiring a car and figuring out how to pay electronic tolls.
