Our Safari Vehicles

We have a broad range of transport options and all vehicles that we use are of good quality, regularly maintained and come with a professional and friendly driver-guide.

Vehicles Based at Camps / Lodges

Some camps (including Porini Safari Camps) operate their own specially-adapted open-sided 4×4 safari vehicles for airstrip transfers and game drives.

We have various designs of 4×4 vehicle at Porini Camps. Some are completely open-sided with a high canvas roof. Some cars can also have the top (roof) canopy rolled open for guests to actually stand – great for photographers. 90% of our fleet is Land Cruisers. We also have Land Rovers.

Porini Safari Camp vehicles:

Porini Camp Land Rover (open-sided) with windscreen down

Porini Camp Toyota Land Cruiser (open-sided)

Road Safaris

Kenya safari transport (for transport around the country on road safaris or between camps) is based on specially-adapted  6 seater Toyota Land Cruisers (4×4) with pop-up roofs so that guests can stand up when viewing wildlife and can take photographs.The Toyota Land Cruisers (4×4) are the standard East African design customised for safaris. The vehicles used for overland road safaris are not open sided like our vehicles based at the Porini Camps but have glass windows which slide and they have roof hatches which either fold over or pop-up.

Toyota Landcruiser 4×4 (closed-sided with pop-up roof) for Road Safaris

Toyota Landcruiser 4×4 (closed-sided with pop-up roof) for Road Safaris

A lower-priced option, instead of the 4×4 Safari Landcruisers, is to go on a road safari in a minivan with pop-up roof. These take 6 passengers in 3 rows so each has a window seat. They do not give the same authentic safari experience as the 4×4 Safari Landcruisers. Most of the mainstream tour companies offering safari tours in Kenya feature road safaris with transport in minivans which drive overland between the parks. A minibus tour can involve lengthy drives of over 5 hours in duration to get to the park and then you will normally go on your game drives in the same vehicle and with the same driver. These are the type of safaris offered by the mass-market tour companies and are what the majority of visitors to Kenya do. These itineraries usually include stays at the bigger tourist lodges and are an option for people looking for the cheapest tours available. Often such itineraries try to cram in too many places and involve a lot of driving from place to place with not enough time available for viewing wildlife and we recommend against trying to do this. While minibuses are fine for city transfers and for driving on the main highways they are not ideal for game-viewing on bush tracks in the parks and as an alternative on our road safaris we recommend up-grading to a 4×4 safari vehicle instead of a minivan.

Minivan (with pop-up roof) for transfers by road on the main highways and for local excursions

Our Recommendation:

Avoid long overland road transfers between the parks and instead fly from Nairobi into the Porini Camps and then go on game drives from camp in our open-sided safari vehicles with an expert guide. Details of our latest special offers to the Porini Camps can be seen here.

Hotel and Airport Transfers

(Please note that these are available only for our customers who have booked with us for a Safari or a stay in Nairobi or at a beach resort at the Kenya coast)

Transfers in Nairobi can be based on 4-seater minivans or 6-seater 4×4 Land Cruisers.

Toyota Alphard minivans used for Nairobi transfers 

Please note that transfers in other locations, including on the Kenya Coast, may be operated by a hotel or by our local agent.