5 Blue Zones.
How many have you visited?

Unique fact: The mountain villages of Ogliastra have the world's highest concentration of male centenarians. Villagrande Strisaili produces about ten times more 100-year-olds per capita than the global average, and unusually for the rest of the world, half of them are men. Researchers credit the Sardinian "moderate" Mediterranean diet, daily walking up steep terrain into old age, and unusually strong family-cohesion bonds.

Why visit: Stay in agriturismo guesthouses in Villagrande or Talana, walk the supramonte trails between villages, eat pecorino sardo and pane carasau with the family that hosts you, and wash it down with Cannonau, the high-polyphenol red wine the Buettner team flagged. The Cala Goloritzé beach is a 90-minute drive away, Italy's best-kept coastal secret.

Unique fact: Okinawan women have the longest documented average life expectancy of any group ever measured. Ogimi village in the north calls itself "the village of long life", there's a stone monument near the village hall that reads "At 80 you are merely a youth, at 90 you are still a child." The Buettner team identified moai (lifelong friend groups), ikigai (a sense of purpose), and a diet built on sweet potato, bitter melon, tofu, and turmeric.

Why visit: Drive the Yanbaru forest road in the north (a UNESCO World Heritage Site as of 2021), stay in a beachfront minshuku in Ogimi or Higashi, eat goya champuru and Okinawan soba, swim at Cape Hedo where the Pacific meets the East China Sea, and have the long-life shikuwasa (a citrus fruit unique to Okinawa) lemonade at a roadside stand.

Unique fact: Men in Nicoya have the world's lowest rates of middle-age mortality and the second-highest concentration of male centenarians (after Sardinia). The peninsula's aquifer water is unusually high in calcium and magnesium, and "the plan de vida", having a life plan, is tightly woven into the local culture. Gallo pinto, corn tortillas pressed by hand, and tropical fruit form the dietary core.

Why visit: Stay in Hojancha or Nosara, drive the dirt-and-jungle roads to remote beaches like Playa Pelada and Playa Guiones, surf the Pacific breaks, and eat in the family-run sodas. The Tempisque River guarantees crocodile sightings on a 40-minute boat ride from the coast, biodiversity is the side dish to everything else.

Unique fact: A New York Times Magazine article called Ikaria "the island where people forget to die." About one in three Ikarians lives into their 90s, and rates of dementia in those 85+ are roughly a quarter of the US baseline. The island's afternoon-nap culture, daily wild-greens harvesting, mountain herb teas, and strong social ties have all been studied as longevity factors.

Why visit: Stay in Christos Raches village, eat soufiko (a slow-cooked summer vegetable stew) at the Ikarian-style panigyria (village feasts) that run all night with violin and lyra music, hike to the Theoskepasti chapel built into a cliff overhang, and time your visit for the Ikarian Triathlon: hike, swim, dance until 4am. Boat from Patmos or fly via Athens.

Unique fact: The only Blue Zone defined by religious community rather than geography. Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda live up to a decade longer than other Americans, with the vegetarian subset living longer still. The Loma Linda University Adventist Health Studies have followed ~100,000 Adventists since 1958, the longest-running prospective dietary cohort study in human history.

Why visit: Visit during a Friday afternoon: the entire community shifts into Sabbath at sundown, restaurants close, and Loma Linda Market, possibly the best independent health-food grocery in the US, becomes the social hub. Tour the Loma Linda University Health campus and pair it with the San Bernardino Mountains an hour to the north for hiking.