Travel Tips
How a Front-Line News Correspondent Learned to Disconnect in South Carolina’s Lowcountry
Kerry Sanders knows travel, but from a different perspective.
As a veteran Miami-based NBC News correspondent, he has reached global audiences from inside war zones—he was embedded with the troops during the Iraq war, covered the first Persian Gulf War from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and was on the front-lines for Hurricanes Andrew, Ivan and Katrina.
He’d be the first to tell you he doesn’t know how to vacation. Can this deadline-driven journalist learn to turn off the cell phone and Blackberry and get away from it all?
When was the last time you sat and watched the day slip away?
If there is an antithesis to the go-go world we exist in, I found it in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
I had planned to go to Paris with my wife for vacation, but between a shifting schedule, and a desire to keep it simple, I chose a spot based simply on a friend’s tip. I didn’t even take the time to read reviews. A quick look at the Web site, and there we were.
Being in the news business, my life is very reactionary. I’m always the last guy getting on the plane because I usually find out I’m getting on the flight an hour before it departs.
I wanted a getaway from the rat race, and as I would discover: there is nothing rushed at the Inn at Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, South Carolina.
The sign announcing Palmetto Bluff along Route 46 is low-key. It’s one step up from hand-lettered, and, as it turns out, that’s telling.
Peter explored the area with a recent radio show–check it out here.
When you arrive, the valet takes your car, and you won’t need to put the key into the ignition until you checkout. Everyone gets a one-speed bike to get from point A to point B, guaranteeing no blood-boiling traffic jams.
If you’re not up for a bike ride to the pool, to the kayaks, to the fishing hole, or to one of the restaurants, then you can rent a golf cart.
The property is more than 20,000 acres, bound by the May, Cooper River and the New rivers, rich in natural beauty and barely touched wilderness.
Shrimpers and oystermen move slowly along the May River. The sunsets hit the marshland grasses. As the sun drops, it changes the color of the marsh from a golf-course green to a Kansas wheat gold.
My favorite escape was not the steam baths, the massages, or the bass fishing, which I would argue can be found at lots of places.
I most enjoyed hopping a one-speed beach cruiser, and pedaling the well-groomed paths into what still remains here. Tall pine forests with oak hammocks and wildlife just about every direction you look.
It’s been a long while since I was deep in nature, where you hear not one mechanical sound. All I heard were birds, the rustle of the wind in the trees, and the occasional squirrel or armadillo rooting about.
Get more ideas with Ask the Locals City Guide: Palmetto Bluff & Bluffton, SC. Nearby, find South Carolina’s historic city of Charleston. Learn more with the Off the Brochure Travel Guide: Charleston, South Carolina.
In fact, it had been so long since I have NOT heard the sounds of civilization that I made note that during my vacation. I only heard one airplane and one helicopter.
It’s a momentary life-change when the man-made noises stand out.
As a journalist, I’m always on the road and I want to make sure my travels have the least amount of impact that I can have. But do I balance convenience with making the effort to discover whether a place is “truly” green. (Is it bad that I don’t always like low-flow restrictors? I like good water pressure in my hotel showers.)
The Inn at Palmetto Bluff makes it easy. Sitting on low country land that was a private wildlife preserve for 75 years, the property was built to be green and energy efficient, and it is integrated into the natural surroundings. Palmetto Bluff is the largest remaining waterfront property on the East Coast, land continues to be protected with limited development.
Learn more about this area in Peter’s radio interview with Kerry Sanders.
What struck me were the biking paths extending through hundreds of acres of land; when you’re peddling through the woods on hard-topped paths, it’s easy to feel one with nature.
So quiet, and thankfully cool during my visit, we opened the doors, and slept with the gentle May River breeze flowing through the cottage.
I have this image of Norman Rockwell in my mind: bikes; slow pace; time to read and laugh. I’m pretty sure I found it.
I’m back in the urban battle zone now. The cell phone is ringing, the Blackberry is filling up with emails. The race is back on. But an escape to the South Carolina Lowcountry isn’t far away.
By Kerry Sanders for PeterGreenberg.com.
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