The atlas
The famous places, and the honest month for each
A destination earns a page here when it has a living tradition, practitioners licensed by somebody, and a season worth travelling for. Good hotels are not a qualification.
15 destinations
Asia
Where the living traditions are — Ayurveda in Kerala and Sri Lanka, yoga in Rishikesh, Sowa Rigpa in Bhutan, Thai medicine, and the onsen towns of Kyūshū. Most of the medicine on this atlas is here.
India
Kerala
The one place on earth where Ayurveda is at once a licensed medical system, a 120-year-old pharmaceutical industry and a tourism product.
India
Rishikesh
Where modern transnational yoga was institutionalised — and then, in 1968, handed global celebrity.
Sri Lanka
The Ayurveda coast
The sixty kilometres of coconut coast that effectively invented the European Ayurveda holiday.
Bhutan
Bhutan
Famous for a policy rather than a treatment — and one of the very few states that dispenses a traditional medicine free, alongside biomedicine.
Indonesia
Ubud
The most recognised retreat town on earth, and the one whose global fame is traceable to a single book.
Thailand
Koh Samui
The island where the Western detox holiday was productised — and where the season is the most misunderstood in Thai travel.
Japan
Beppu
The largest hot-spring town on earth by volume — and the reference site for Japanese balneology.
Japan
Okinawa
One of the five original Blue Zones — and the one where the honest story is that the island is selling a past it no longer has.
Europe
The cure towns: the UNESCO spa towns, the radon galleries of Gastein, the drinking cure at Karlovy Vary, Breton thalassotherapy and the Swiss longevity clinics. Several are still part-funded by statutory health insurance.
Germany
Baden-Baden
The archetype of the nineteenth-century European spa, and one of eleven towns UNESCO inscribed together in 2021.
Czechia
Karlovy Vary
The most complete surviving example of the drinking cure — a whole town organised around a porcelain cup rather than a bath.
Austria
Bad Gastein
The only place in Europe where the primary therapy is a train ride two kilometres into a mountain.
France
Quiberon
Where modern thalassotherapy was invented as a commercial category — by a cyclist, in 1964.
Switzerland
Montreux
The origin point of the entire European longevity-clinic category — and the most expensive week on this atlas.
Austria
Tyrol
Where the Mayr cure became a medical category — and where “going to Austria for your gut” came from.
The Americas
Where people simply live longest — and where the difference between the published demography and the marketing is widest. We list one destination here and we argue with it on its own page.
Month by month
When to actually go
Gold is the season we would book. Faded gold is perfectly good. Empty means we would talk you out of it — and we would rather lose the booking than sell you a fortnight of monsoon in the wrong country.
| Destination | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KeralaIndia | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: we would talk you out of it | Apr: we would talk you out of it | May: we would talk you out of it | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: perfectly good | Dec: perfectly good |
| RishikeshIndia | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: book this | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: we would talk you out of it | Jun: we would talk you out of it | Jul: we would talk you out of it | Aug: we would talk you out of it | Sep: book this | Oct: book this | Nov: book this | Dec: perfectly good |
| The Ayurveda coastSri Lanka | Jan: book this | Feb: book this | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: we would talk you out of it | Jun: we would talk you out of it | Jul: we would talk you out of it | Aug: we would talk you out of it | Sep: we would talk you out of it | Oct: we would talk you out of it | Nov: perfectly good | Dec: book this |
| BhutanBhutan | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: book this | Jun: we would talk you out of it | Jul: we would talk you out of it | Aug: we would talk you out of it | Sep: book this | Oct: book this | Nov: book this | Dec: perfectly good |
| UbudIndonesia | Jan: we would talk you out of it | Feb: we would talk you out of it | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: book this | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: perfectly good | Dec: we would talk you out of it |
| Koh SamuiThailand | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: book this | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: perfectly good | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: perfectly good | Oct: we would talk you out of it | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: we would talk you out of it |
| BeppuJapan | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: perfectly good | Jun: we would talk you out of it | Jul: we would talk you out of it | Aug: we would talk you out of it | Sep: perfectly good | Oct: book this | Nov: book this | Dec: book this |
| OkinawaJapan | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: we would talk you out of it | Jun: we would talk you out of it | Jul: perfectly good | Aug: we would talk you out of it | Sep: we would talk you out of it | Oct: book this | Nov: book this | Dec: perfectly good |
| Baden-BadenGermany | Jan: we would talk you out of it | Feb: we would talk you out of it | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: perfectly good | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: perfectly good | Aug: perfectly good | Sep: book this | Oct: book this | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
| Karlovy VaryCzechia | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: we would talk you out of it | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: perfectly good | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: we would talk you out of it | Aug: perfectly good | Sep: book this | Oct: book this | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
| Bad GasteinAustria | Jan: book this | Feb: book this | Mar: book this | Apr: we would talk you out of it | May: we would talk you out of it | Jun: perfectly good | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
| QuiberonFrance | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: book this | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: perfectly good | Aug: we would talk you out of it | Sep: book this | Oct: book this | Nov: perfectly good | Dec: perfectly good |
| MontreuxSwitzerland | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: book this | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: we would talk you out of it | Aug: perfectly good | Sep: book this | Oct: book this | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
| TyrolAustria | Jan: perfectly good | Feb: perfectly good | Mar: perfectly good | Apr: perfectly good | May: book this | Jun: book this | Jul: book this | Aug: book this | Sep: book this | Oct: perfectly good | Nov: we would talk you out of it | Dec: perfectly good |
| The Nicoya peninsulaCosta Rica | Jan: book this | Feb: book this | Mar: book this | Apr: book this | May: perfectly good | Jun: perfectly good | Jul: perfectly good | Aug: perfectly good | Sep: we would talk you out of it | Oct: we would talk you out of it | Nov: perfectly good | Dec: book this |