Have been to Albufeira on the Algarve in mid January 4 out of the last 5 years.One year was the driest winter for 100 years. Weather has always been good, 16ish in the day chilly at night.Lots of places are closed,those that are open are quiet,but you may find somewhere where there are more people.

We were in Portugal for 7 weeks during January and February this year. We had better weather about the last 10 days of the holiday but found it quite overcast at times, although we did get some nice sunshine but feeling quite cold due to the wind.
A few years ago we were there too and had quite nice weather.
All in all, when we looked at the snow and ice back home, it was much better to be in the Algarve for sure.......

It depends on what you are looking for. I think that there is more open in the Albufeira area although most places are relatvely quiet. We travelled to 4 different resorts when we were there and always found plenty of bars/restaurants etc to keep us happy.
Pat

This winter was officially the worst (in terms of rainy days and cold) since 1945. It's usually not not too bad, averaging mid 50's during the day but it does get cold at night, down to 35F once or twice. You really do notice the difference if it's been a warm sunny day and then suddenly it gets dark at 5pm and brrrr...

Albufeira is an all year resort and because about 19,000 of us live here, there enough places open. Having said that, many tourist oriented bars and restaurants close after the New Year holiday and don't open again until Easter. Many use that period for repairs and refurbishment.

In Madeira, December was considered the worst in living memory with torrential storms, rain and landslides. However when I was there for January it was warm (20 ish) and dry with no rain the whole month.