Low and Slow

The Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina, where kids come first, gave our Oprah Daily site director the break she needed.

- BY MAGGIE MALONEY

A private Duffy boat cruise, taken at sunset, floats through the inland waterways. A veranda wraps around part of the hotel's Oak Ballroom. Spa Montage's heated, adult-only lap pool-one of three pools on the property. Kayaking on the May River, which weaves through the town of Bluffton, South Carolina.

FOR WHATEVER REASON, travel for me has almost never been about rest.

Before I became a mom, vacation meant waking up at 6 a.m. to go on a six-hour hike up a mountain, as my husband and I did on our honeymoon. Or dragging my friends on a 12-stop crêpe crawl all across Paris to find the very best version of a crêpe au sucre. In my current season of life, as the mother of a sweet and energetic toddler, all of the strategizing required—the list making, gear packing, and toy toting—plays to my no-rest-for-the-weary vacation style.

Before we arrived at Montage Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina, I could feel my type A travel-planner brain rearing its head as I read up on all the outdoor activities: hiking along the 56-plus-mile network of trails; kayaking along the peaceful May River; paddling through the 5-mile freshwater trail connecting the Bluff’s two villages, Wilson and Moreland; teeing off on the 18-hole, Jack Nicklaus-designed course at the May River Golf Course; playing tennis or croquet at the Wilson Lawn and Racquet Club; winding through 40 breathtaking acres at the Palmetto Bluff Shooting Club.

And so it surprised my husband as much as it did me when all I wanted to do from pretty much the moment we arrived was rest.