Ten questions to judge a longevity stay
The category has grown fast enough that the word now travels faster than the work behind it. That is normal, it happens to every category, and it is easy to see through with ten questions.
When the Global Wellness Institute published its wellness tourism themes for 2026, it put credibility at the centre of longevity travel and asked the industry to distinguish what is built on evidence from what is built on atmosphere. We agree, and the useful form of that request is a list of questions you can ask before you commit to anything.
On the programme
Who wrote it, and what are they qualified in? A name and a qualification, not a job title. What exactly is measured, and when? Before, during, after, or only in the brochure. What happens to the measurements afterwards? A protocol with no follow-up is a stay with a vocabulary.
What is adapted to me, and what is the same for everyone? Both answers are legitimate. Only one of them is usually given. What happens if I do not want to do part of it? A serious programme has an answer. A theatrical one has a schedule.
On the place
What does the bedroom do at night? Darkness, silence, temperature, air. What is the heaviest weight in the gym, and is the room cooled? When was the sauna last used, and how long does it take to heat? Who cooks, and to what brief? Four questions, four factual answers, no interpretation required.
On what is left afterwards
What do I take home? A written record of what was done and what it produced, or a memory and a bill. This last question is the one that most reliably separates the two, because it costs nothing to answer well and nobody who has not done the work can answer it at all.
A serious programme answers all ten in writing, in a paragraph each, without being asked twice.
We apply the same ten to ourselves, which is why our own answer to the fourth is that almost everything is adapted and very little is standard, and our answer to the tenth is that you leave with what was set up and why. Nothing on this site is medical advice, and anything touching medicine is contracted directly with the practitioners who are qualified to provide it.
What this changes in a stay
We apply the same ten to ourselves. Almost everything we compose is adapted and very little is standard, the place is judged on the four night variables and the six training ones rather than on its photographs, and you leave with what was set up and why. Where a stay calls for medicine, we do not provide it: it is contracted directly with the practitioners qualified to do so, and we say which ones before you commit.
Frequently asked
How do I know if a longevity retreat is credible?
Ask who wrote the programme and what they are qualified in, what is measured and when, what follow-up exists afterwards, and what you take home in writing. Factual questions with factual answers.
Are the results of a longevity stay lasting?
What lasts is what you keep doing afterwards. That is why the sleep, the training and the table matter more than any single intervention delivered on site.
What is the difference between longevity tourism and medical tourism?
Medical tourism is travel undertaken to receive a medical procedure. Longevity travel is a stay organised around sleep, movement, food and recovery. Where the two meet, the medical part is contracted with qualified practitioners.