Zest Car Rental - Masterkings

I can vouch for Zest.

We did not use Masterkings. We rented from another Zest rental company in Lisbon called RentCar4Less. I recall their office was located almost next to the MasterKings office. Both are about a 6 minute car ride from the Airport. In our case, we booked our car at the end of our stay in Lisbon, so we took a bolt from our apartment directly to the rental office instead of to the airport (save the extra airport fee).

The smaller companies will save money by not parking cars at the airport. To pick up car they will send a shuttle to drive you to the off site office. When we dropped off at Faro airport, a representative met us at the airport parking lot to take our keys and car. They are very prompt when an appointment is made for pickup or drop off.

If you prefer, you could book a car from a larger international company like Dollar or Hertz through Zest. These two companies have cars parked in the airport parking, but they will probably be more expensive than MasterKings. However, I'm willing to bet that booking through Zest will still be cheaper than booking directly with Dollar or Hertz. Zest is very popular in Portugal and they negotiate very good discounts from their suppliers. Good luck.

Thank you funpig - much appreciate learning about your experience and better understanding how Zest works.

Do you think I need the car rental GPS or if I have wifi (T-Mobile) and google maps it is not necessary?

I am also looking at Zest rental for Lisbon airport or center pickup. Two questions:

since we will be in Lisbon a few days ahead of needing a car, is it easier to pick up in the city close to a train station.

Is an international drivers license required for US citizens if renting via Zest. The fine print seemed to indicate that, depending what 'in English' means.

"Upon collection, present your valid original (physical) UK or Portuguese photocard issued driver’s licence to the car rental provider. You must have held this for 1 year or more. If your licence was not issued in English or Portuguese, you must also present an International Driving Permit."

We did not need an international license for our 2 week stay. We also had a great experience with MasterKings; we picked the car up from the Faro airport, and dropped it off at the Lisbon one. Both interactions were straightforward and hassle-free. Since the rental site is off the airport, factor in extra time if you're leaving the same day.
Neither of us like driving in the city (Lisbon and Porto have lots of hills and one-way streets and traffic), so prefer to rent from the airports, with have straight shots to the freeway. Other people prefer the ease of going from the train station to the car, rather than having to take public transpo or Uber.

Re: GPS. We used Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (bring a USB cable) for maps, and I don't recall having a problem with connection (my car at home has it, so I'm familiar; my husband less so.) We didn't have T-mobile, but cellular is pretty good everywhere.

IDP was not necessary for Portugal. I checked with Canadian travel website and by email with Zest.

We purchased an Orange Travel eSim and used Google maps on our phones.