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Mark Lakin

@mark_lakin

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🌍Founder & CEO @thelegacyuntold- Travel Design & Hospitality Consulting ✈️ “Top Travel Designer” & Writer for @travelandleisure📖Lawyer✌🏾Activist

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OPRAH! ♥️

I’m incredibly honored to be named one of Oprah Daily’s 10 global “Trip Fixers We Trust,” and especially proud to be recognized as Best for Safaris.

I’ve taken more than 70 trips to Africa. It’s the place that sets my soul on fire, makes me feel the most alive, and reminds me how truly magnificent our planet is. My extensive scouting in Africa allows The Legacy Untold to go far beyond simply knowing the best luxury lodges. We know the best guides, helicopter pilots, scientists, rarely-visited tribal communities, and once in a lifetime experiences that turn a safari into a life changing journey.

From working with scientists to collar a wild cheetah for conservation, to communing with rarely contacted tribes, our work in Africa is built on decades of firsthand experience and deep relationships across the continent.

A huge thank you to @oprahdaily and @markellwood for this recognition, and to the entire @thelegacyuntold team and our extraordinary partners across Africa who make these journeys transformative for our travelers.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us design a life changing adventure for you and your loved ones.

#OprahDaily #TripFixersWeTrust #TheLegacyUntold by @mark_lakin

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2 months ago

2025 was a DREAM. I’m grateful to spend so much time traveling with friends that set my soul on fire. I feel lucky to have a career that requires me to explore the edges of our planet… to scout rare properties and curate unforgettable experiences that elevate the consciousness of our travelers, and leave a destination better than we found it.

This year sent me to Japan, Madagascar, Oman, Switzerland, Mozambique, South Africa, Portugal, India, Mexico, Morocco, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Vegas, Montauk—and always back home to my beloved New York City.

It’s a privilege to learn and share with the incredible local people I meet along the way- they are the true soul of these journeys. They are what draw me back, time and again, and what make every destination unforgettable.

Thank you to my travelers who continue to trust me with their dreams, and allow me to live mine. And thank you to my INCREDIBLE TEAM at The Legacy Untold! We built this dream together!

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us design your next journey—because this planet is far too remarkable to sit still. Time waits for no one, let’s make it count!

#thelegacyuntold #mylegacy #2025wrapped by @mark_lakin

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9 months ago

2024… I am profoundly grateful for this magical year exploring our beautiful planet. Scouting special properties and exceptional experiences, to design the most spectacular travel experiences for my treasured clients at The Legacy Untold. This year took me to Laos, Bhutan, Hong Kong, South Africa, Tanzania, the Seychelles, Morocco, Sicily, Puglia, Milan, Switzerland, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and beyond.

I am profoundly grateful for the privilege to see this extraordinary world with friends that I love like family.

I’ll never forget the beautiful souls I met along the way … they are the heartbeat behind my travels, the reason I’m drawn back to these places time and time again.

Thank you all for allowing my dream to be my reality 🙏

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us design your next journey—because this planet is too special to stay in one place. Time waits for no one.

#thelegacyuntold #mylegacy taken in New York, New York by @mark_lakin

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2 years ago

At least we saw gorillas! 😉

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us design an immersive journey for you and your loved ones.

#thelegacyuntold #gorillatrekking #comedy by @mark_lakin

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6 days ago

The magical ol Donyo, a Great Plains property in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills, with one of my oldest friends, @drdancey

I’ve been fortunate to experience a lot of extraordinary lodges over the years, and ol Donyo stands apart. Set on the Maasai-owned Mbirikani Ranch beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, it has that increasingly rare quality of making you feel completely immersed in a vast landscape rather than simply observing it from a vehicle.

The wildlife was exceptional—we watched lions on a kill and encountered elephants, giraffes, zebras and more—but what impressed me most was the sheer range of ways you can experience this part of Kenya.

The stables are among the best I’ve seen anywhere in Africa. Great horses, serious equestrian infrastructure, and the opportunity to ride across open country among wildlife completely changes your relationship with the landscape. For experienced riders, horseback riding here is not an add-on; it is a defining part of the experience.

And then there are the hides. One brings you down to ground level at the waterhole, where elephants can come within feet of you. Sitting quietly at eye level with one of Africa’s great tuskers is an entirely different kind of wildlife encounter—no vehicle, no distance, just extraordinary proximity.

For Stacey’s belated birthday, we took the doors off a helicopter and flew low over the Chyulu Hills, stopping for sundowners along the way. It was an unforgettable way to celebrate and an incredible vantage point from which to understand just how immense this ecosystem really is.

What makes ol Donyo so special is the combination of wilderness, conservation, horses, wildlife and access. There are so many ways to experience the landscape here, and each one reveals something different. That depth is what sets it apart.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us design a magical trip to Kenya for you and your loved ones.

#thelegacyuntold #kenya #safari by @mark_lakin

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12 days ago

After 70+ trips to Africa, this is how I would plan your perfect day on safari.

The beautiful Mwiba Lodge in Tanzania with @tskwambane, a game drive through the reserve, a long afternoon by the pool, and nowhere else we needed to be.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us take you on the safari trip of your dreams.

#thelegacyuntold #tanzania #safari by @mark_lakin

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13 days ago

There are still places on this planet that make you feel wonderfully insignificant.

Far from the familiar, well beyond the beaten path, where the horizon feels endless and the world still feels truly wild.

Places at the edge of the world that reset your perspective—and remind you why we never stop exploring.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us take you beyond the beaten path, to the places that put everything back into perspective.

#thelegacyuntold #edgeoftheworld #travel by @mark_lakin

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19 days ago

A few special moments from Japan that keep me coming back.

Exceptional meals, sake, markets, ryokans, craftsmanship, quiet interiors, and the kind of details that reveal themselves only when you go deep.

After decades of traveling through Japan, new layers continue to reveal themselves.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us whisk you away to the land of the rising sun.

#thelegacyuntold #japan #luxurytravel by @mark_lakin

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20 days ago

Travel is not only about what you do during the day.
Sometimes the best part starts when the sun goes down.

From cities that come alive at night to places where darkness and silence are part of the experience, there is a whole other side of travel after sunset.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us plan a trip worth staying up for.

#thelegacyuntold #night #travel by @mark_lakin

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a month ago

I believe this is what they mean by coastal living.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us show you lifes simple pleasures.

#thelegacyuntold #montauk #caviar by @mark_lakin

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a month ago

There is no single version of a great table.

It can come with white linen and an impossible view, or no table at all. A tasting menu in a great city. Bread made by hand. Seafood pulled from a market. Dinner on a beach. A family recipe. Too many friends and not enough chairs.

A shared meal has a way of cutting through the distance between us. Somewhere between the tasting menu and the street stall, the ceremony and the chaos, food tells you something honest about a place.

How people live. What they value. What they celebrate.

Travel is better when you come hungry.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us take you to the places where the table becomes part of the journey.

#thelegacyuntold #travel #food by @mark_lakin

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a month ago

Some of the most unforgettable views come framed.

A window onto a distant landscape. A doorway opening into somewhere unknown. A moment that asks you to stop, look, and take it in.

Travel has a way of turning the world into a series of frames worth remembering.

DM me or my travel agency @thelegacyuntold and let us open a door to a different way of seeing the world.

#thelegacyuntold #travel #view by @mark_lakin

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a month ago