Lauren Rich-Lama

Founder & Advisor, Under the Palm Travel

Originally hailing from the glorious ‘burbs of Maryland, Lauren spent 15 years having a love affair with New York City before swapping the concrete jungle for the real jungle. Today, you can find her embracing all things luxuriant living – the good, the glamorous, and the ungodly flying bugs – between the tropics of Miami and the Mexican Caribbean.

A serial entrepreneur, Lauren has been proudly self-employed since graduating from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising & Marketing Communications. Past lives have seen her at the helm of her own fashion PR agency for nearly a decade in New York, followed by co-running a luxury wedding photography studio alongside her lensman husband, Alberto Lama.

A self-described hotel junkie and SPF addict who ironically prefers the cold — she spent her youth competitive figure skating — Lauren often wonders how she ended up in the tropics. Yet here she is, in a perpetual state of glass skin (read: sweat radiance) and uncontrollably voluminous hair. Embracing her best beach life, she became a luxury travel advisor in 2023 specializing in upgraded resort stays for fellow escapists.

Drawing on her multifaceted background across media, luxury travel, and visual storytelling, she’s now launched Poolside Confidential: an insider editorial destination exclusively dedicated to the glorious, restorative and unapologetic art of resort travel. Because vacation is therapy.

On any given day Lauren can be found slathering on the sunscreen, mastering the underrated art of Spanglish and plotting poolside adventures with Alberto and their Dachshund/Black Lab rescue pup, Frijolita (“little bean”).