FlagshipayurvedaAnanda in the Himalayas · Rishikesh
Ayurvedic Rejuvenation and Immunity Booster
Ananda’s Ayurvedic programme for immunity and vitality, sold at 7, 14 or 21 nights on the Palace Estate at Narendra Nagar.
FromUS$6,880per person
Wellness goal · Care considerations
Longevity retreats
“I am well. I would like to stay that way, and I would like some data.”
Longevity & prevention
What to know before you choose
In Ayurveda this is Rasayana — the branch concerned with renewal — and it is a course of treatment, not a product.
Read more about longevity & prevention
Rasayana is one of the eight classical branches of Ayurveda: internal preparations, oil treatments and a prescribed diet, usually taken after a period of purification, on the principle that a body is rebuilt once it has been cleared. The houses that take it seriously run it as a doctor-led course of two to four weeks.
The honest position: the evidence for it is traditional rather than trial-based, and nobody serious promises a longer life. What a course reliably gives is several weeks of early nights, plain food, daily treatment and no alcohol, under a doctor’s supervision — and a routine to take home.
The test of a programme is simple and worth applying: does a doctor examine you before anything is prescribed, and review you at the end? If not, it is a spa.
Programmes
2 longevity programmes
Flagship
ayurvedaSoma Manaltheeram Ayurveda Beach Village · Kerala
Ayurveda Anti-Ageing Programme
Manaltheeram’s anti-ageing package — purification first, then Rasayana — sold as a fourteen-night or twenty-one-night stay.
FromUS$2,630per person
Programme approaches
The traditions that address it
What to expect
What a programme for this actually does to your fortnight
A good trip starts with realistic expectations — these are the routines you are likely to meet.
- 01
A doctor’s consultation before anything is prescribed, and regularly through the stay.
- 02
Purification first where the doctor advises it, then the rebuilding treatments.
- 03
Internal preparations and a prescribed diet alongside the daily treatments.
- 04
A great deal of unglamorous advice about sleep, food and alcohol.
- 05
No promises about lifespan, from anybody serious.
How long should a longevity retreat be?
Fourteen to twenty-eight nights. The classical courses are long, and the houses say so themselves.
Where can I go for a longevity retreat?
On this site: Kerala (India) and Rishikesh (India). Each destination page shows its best months, its houses and how to get there.
How much does a longevity retreat cost?
Programmes for this goal start from US$2,630 per person. Every stay is quoted individually — the room, the length and your dates set the final figure, confirmed in writing before you pay.
Is a longevity retreat right for me?
Extensive screening in well people is not an unqualified good: it produces incidental findings, false positives and downstream investigations that carry their own risks, and reasonable doctors disagree about how much of it is worthwhile. Ask what happens to an abnormal result and who follows it up. Be sceptical of anything infused, injected or sold in a bottle at the end — the evidence for most of it is thin, and the evidence for sleep, strength training and not drinking is not. Whether a programme is medically suitable is a decision for your own doctor and the qualified team at the property — our role is the travel planning.