Unwinderies: A Guide to Stress-Free Zones
O – The Oprah Magazine, Oct. 2002
Kathleen Beckett

An Idyllic English Country house. A restorative week in Provence. A camel trek through the Sahara. From the aqua blue of the Indian Ocean to a monastery in the California mountains, here are 11 places to let your guard down, put your feet up, and give your spirit a breather.

Home on the Range When you check in to the Cibolo Creek Ranch, you'll appreciate just how vast the state of Texas truly is. The ranch covers 30,000 rugged acres, which means you won't be able to see beyond its borders once you turn down the dusty driveway. Rooms in the three 19th-century forts are decorated in an Alamo-by-way-of-Ralph Lauren fashion, with goose-down bedding, antique Mexican armoires, and three-foot-thick adobe walls that cocoon you in sweet silence. (No fax machines or televisions in these rooms, and your cell phone will be blissfully out of range.) The stunning south Texas desert is the real star, though, with its sculptural hills to hike, red-clay trails for horseback riding, and expansive pool for just plain lolling before the nightly campfire.