naturist

SEX ON THE BEACH: Why a Newbie Naturist Should NOT Visit Cap d’Agde!

12 Comments

We’ve been at least a half dozen times over the past twenty years, usually staying for two or three nights en route to another naturist destination. But this time, we were simply making a day visit with a couple friends – one a confirmed naturist, the other, new to the concept, but most certainty social nudity curious.

We did the best we could to prep them for this visit to the Naked City. For our naturist friend, this was something of a pilgrimage, having read so much about the most expansive naturist enclave in the world. And to be sure, depending where you’re looking on the internet, the place sounds like naturist Utopia. 24/7 nudity – in the shops, restaurants, and even in the post office. You can easily think you’ve got a good pulse on the place on the web without bumping into the language about foam parties and libertines (swingers) if you’re simply searching for the ultimate naturist destination.

On previous journeys, my wife and I have typically stayed in the modest Hotel Eve, tucked away at the edge of the village. While we’ve seen a few amorous couples there over the years, they have typically remained just within the lines of acceptable public display of affection. We understand “amorous”, and like to think we have cultivated a good appreciation for such in our 30+ years of marriage, but we have never chosen to imbibe in the libertine scene, nor are we likely to put our own affections on public display. 

Admittedly, my wife and I hold differing perspectives on the sexual pulse of Cap d’Agde as you pass a club with pole dancers on the way to the grocery store, or a woman walking by in a negligée that simply exaggerates the body parts that a bikini typically covers up, while keeping her partner close by on a studded collar and leash. “There’s some wild and crazy going on in our midst,” we say. I have always thought it to be a bizarre study in humanity. While she has never felt like we’ve put ourselves in a particularly threatening situation, my wife finds the whole environment someplace between disquieting at least, and disturbing at most. 

Until this time…

I had given a brief history of Cap d’Agde – the great naked city of France – to our friends in the car on our way down the autoroute from Provence, including the details of the original charter that still permeates the regulations to be acknowledged at the entrance today, banning overt sexuality and a wide array of other inappropriate behaviors. Some online reviews even tell stories of being denied admission at the gate due to the lack of an affiliation with a legitimate naturist organization.

In the meantime, I’ve kept up on my reading about the place over the years: the opening of a new “genuine naturist hotel” that hosts getting to know you parties on the terrace (along with alluring photos); the arson reports related to the total destruction of the most prominent swingers’ club (and the subsequent rebuilding) a few years back; and the varied reports of just what happens on the beach, especially around the time the sun begins to set. We certainly had an awareness of all that from our previous visits, but we simply weren’t prepared for what awaited us on this visit.

Once parked with clothing safely secured in the car, we made our way into the heart of the town where we consumed copious amounts of vin rosé beneath the relieving protection of misters that ameliorated the blistering heat during this prolonged heat wave in the South of France. We each ventured down to the beach now and again – the familial section of the beach near all the restaurants and shops – noting an occasional couple riding the waves locked in a suspiciously euphoric embrace. It was the typical intergenerational mixture of young families to senior citizens, with a near 100% compliance with the total nudity regulations. This was the Cap d’Adge we had experienced in the past.

Having made 8:00 pm dinner reservations, the defining moment arrived when we decided to take a stroll down the naturist beach as the sun was beginning to set. I suppose timing is everything on occasions like this, but we were hardly a few meters beyond the first beach bar when we came upon women on their knees pleasing their partners, then circles of spectators watching various displays of human sexuality – and as often as not, a circle of men, gazing on the event, pleasuring themselves in a participatory sort of way.

I should reiterate at this point that we (and thankfully, our friends who were with us) are of the live and let live variety of human. “Do what you want as long as it’s not invasive or hurtful to the other people around you.” But I have to say, this was a country mile beyond the world of bizarre. For me, it was something akin to a visit to the city zoo. “Ah, do you think we’ll see the monkey lick the other monkey’s butt today? And why doesn’t that bear ever come out of his cave!” What it wasn’t, however, (at least for me) was the least bit erotic. And my wife was (quite appropriately) offended by a woman who was simply gyrating in the sand to the pleasure of a circle of dozens of lonely-looking men. Naturist values be damned – this was in no way what we’ve come to associate with the pervasive values of social nudity in France!

It’s impossible to know the psychology at play amidst the people “playing” on the beach that day. Were they liberated? Desperate? Or just out having a good time with strangers and friends? Is that appreciably different than some of the groping and such that goes on at a New York City night club any night of the week? 

Regardless of intent, what Cap d’Agde is not is the naturist Utopia the forefathers set out to create, if simply imagined through the eyes of a person who travels half way across the world to visit this iconic naked city. Even given our recurring experiences with the place, our wandering trek through the sexcapades, as perceived along side our young naturist friends, was simply over the edge! What if an eager husband has been working for years to convince his partner that naturism is a holistic movement intended to embrace body acceptance in a non-threatening environment? It’s difficult to imagine that if Cap d’Adge were the first stop on a journey of naturist exploration that the reluctant partner would ever go near another “naturist place” EVER – again!

I suppose this is really a microcosm representing the confusion in the general public’s perception of social nudity to begin with. We keep trying to convince people that it’s not just one giant orgy in the making, except… when it is! And in this case, the naturist charter that supposedly governs the place has been completely undermined by the actual law of the land. While Cap d’Agde is advertised as the great naked city, it is actually the primary destination for, well… MANY giant orgies, which in turn generates copious amounts of revenue through tourist taxes from the tens of thousands who go there each year to experience exactly that.  I might add that this is not an effort to condemn such activities, nor do I have a desire to pass judgment on people who enjoy such an environment, but if one is trying to make a case for non-sexual social nudity, Cap d’Agde is not going to do much to help your case.

I’ve tried to imagine the dinner conversation for the young families who stay there for weeks at a time each summer. “Mommy, why were those men all standing in a circle around that woman this afternoon?” Perhaps that simply becomes a teachable moment over macaroni and cheese, but such a conversation would require a level of tolerance that most Americans could never imagine. Be that as it may, but just a word to the wise…

If you are curious about social nudity and you’re eager to find out what it’s all about, there are about three-hundred naturist centers in France alone. Cap d’Agde may not be the entry point you were hoping for.  

Photos were found on a Google images search. If you find one that belongs to you, we will be most willing to remove should you ask.

The “Right to Bare All”… and other news from Ile du Levant

1 Comment

If you’re a keen advocate for naturism, and you haven’t yet made a visit to Ile du Levant, you need to move that up on your bucket list. It’s one of a handful of places that has self-identified as the birthplace of naturism. (Germany and Croatia contend for this distinction as well!) At the very least, it seems to be something of a naked renaissance town at the moment, but more about that later.

Part of the adventure of coming to the naked island in France is catching the ferry from the port of Le Lavandou. Since the boat makes two stops, one at Levant, and the other at neighboring Port Cros, it’s fun to play the “I wonder who will get off the boat on which island” game. This time, the boat was quite full, and nearly every person on board disembarked at the first stop – Ile du Levant!

Mind you, we had been in transit for nearly twenty-four hours having made our way from Newark Liberty Airport, through Brussels, then on to Marseille. After another two hours in the car, and a 40-minute ferry crossing, I was itching to embrace the late day Provençal sunlight, free from the bondage of North American travel-wear!  Thirty meters up the path from the port, a quick bathroom stop, and voila! Naked!!

A few years ago, we brought long-time friends from California along with us to experience this little naturist mecca first hand. They would not call themselves naturists, but have been willing nakation companions over the years. Our friend Tom was particularly intrigued with the history of the island, the prevailing rules regarding nudity, or more acutely, “Why were there so many people walking around the island fully clothed?” Eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit, not a cloud in the sky, and so many a passers-by wearing jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. What’s up with that?

Fair question, I think, particularly on this landmass isolated from the prudish nay-sayers who might suffer the oppression of unwanted nudity. NOBODY comes to Levant without the expectation of seeing naked people. And it seems even more peculiar to me that someone might come here without the expectation of becoming an enthusiastic clothes-free participant. Tom prodded our innkeeper about the politics of it all, unpacking the complicated history of this naturist hamlet island with nearly a hundred years of controversy in defining how naked is naked. (See: Another Round of Crazy on Ile du Levant)

Now, several years later, we’re back for a weekend of naturist serenity and solitude, and I, for one, plan to get my money’s worth! While anecdotal at best, it seems this is not an uncommon perspective amidst visitors from North America, as evidenced by the only other couple at breakfast who were as naked as we were. Perhaps some people come here simply for the pleasure of lying au naturel on the beach or striving for no tan lines by the pool. Or maybe the French people think nudity to be such a non-issue, with so many places “in the neighborhood” to get naked on the day-to-day, that they lack some of the zeal of the prudish American who has waited all year (or years!) for the privilege to bare all.

We have experienced this again and again during our European travels, going to great lengths to find places where nudity is not only allowed, but required– as is the case on the coastal path just beyond the port of Ile du Levant. (Explicit signage near the port tells you where you can’t be naked, where you can be naked, and where you must be naked!) But on this morning trek, we found the demographics to be about 50-50, some fully nude, some donning beach cover-ups, and others dressed as if prepared to take on the Appalachian Trail in early October. Really!?

There is a sub-plot to all of this, pertaining especially to residential naturist places, which Ile du Levant most certainly is. (We’ve experienced this at La Jenny as well.) With increasing frequency, it seems that families have purchased homes in these naturist communities two or three generations back. The home stays in the family, but the naturism gene didn’t carry forward. 

“Hey! We have this lovely home near a beautiful beach in France!”

“Isn’t that one of those places with loads of naked people?”

“Oh yeah… you’ll encounter some of the crazy nudists, but don’t worry about it! You don’t have to get naked with them!”

As with the evolution of any neighborhood, I suppose such unintended outcomes are inevitable, but if it’s a total naturist experience you’re seeking, there’s a compelling case to be made for camping establishments that cater to young family tent-campers – the most transient of communities where the main attraction is the right to bare all. If you didn’t want to get naked, you simply wouldn’t go there.

Which takes us back all the way to our very first experience with Ile du Levant sometime back around 2006, when we came out on the ferry for a day trip for our first exploration of this historic naturist landmark. My wife and I still reminisce about her reticence to get naked that day, despite the hype about a naturist island and her confirmed affinity for naked travel.

“Are you sure we can be naked here? Why aren’t those people naked? Really, I can be topless in the village?”

We laugh about it now, but for the novice naturist, this can be quite a conundrum! As my friend Tom learned from our innkeeper that day, the modus operandus at most naturist places is simply that… “You have the right to bare all,” but there are few places that even attempt to impose any sort of regulations for mandatory nudity. “As you wish” seems to be the presumptive rule of the land.

So last night we frequented one of our favorite bistros on the island where the wait-staff were attired in their typical apparel; sandals and full-length aprons with ample butt cleavage on full display below the apron tie. While they actually advertise that nudity while dining is permitted, if not actively encouraged, I found myself – again – in the midst of that proverbial third grade dream when you realize that you’re the only one in the room with no pants on. (Except, in this case, for the waiters, of course!) It’s a small island, and by now, we’d seen at least half the people in the restaurant earlier in the day, fully nude by the pool or along the sea. But here at dinner, most everyone was fully adorned, some of the women rather provocatively so in sheer fabric that would never make muster for the church covered-dish dinner or a PTA meeting. As I made my way to the restroom, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was the singular freak-show for the evening, dressed in a button-down shirt, but nothing below. Perhaps I was, but alas, we are here in the land of as you wish, and if anyone batted an eye, they were most discrete about it. 

But it was a beautiful evening, on a naturist island, and I simply couldn’t resist the all too infrequent… right to bare all!

As to the renaissance – it seems there are more 20-30 somethings on the island than we’ve seen in recent years, and at least during the day, more naked people than we’ve encountered on previous visits. They say young naturism is on an upswing in France. Maybe the young naked people we reclaim the naturist vision on this remarkable big rock off the Cote d’Azur!

Oh, the places we’ve been… NAKED!

4 Comments

Back in 2014, shortly after I started this blog, I began a series of posts called “One-Hundred Naked Places.” The idea was to document the places we had visited, including the ones we weren’t so keen on, in an effort to provide an admittedly biased resource for others who are looking for great places to get naked. The bias part is simply admitting that the very thing we’re not looking for may well be the thing somebody else is looking for.

Looking for naturist nirvana on Fuerteventura

I’ve listed those original posts at the end of this post, and I’m gradually working through them again as we’ve done a lot of traveling since 2014, and I never quite got to the end of the series. BUT NOW… we have interactive Google Maps, which can be updated as we go along.

CLICK THE LINK HERE to go to our INTERACTIVE GOOGLE MAP where we’ve marked the NAKED PLACES WE’VE BEEN.

Now you can click through to our personalized Google map of “Places we’ve Been Naked,” which will provide you with a link to the most recent information and photos on the web, and our brief commentary in the list view regarding our visit there. As noted on the map, I can’t quite figure out why all the pins don’t automatically appear on the map, but as soon as you click on the link from the list, it will pin it on the map.

CLICK THE LINK HERE to go to our INTERACTIVE GOOGLE MAP where we’ve marked the NAKED PLACES WE’VE BEEN.

By now, I have over a hundred blog posts since 2013, so if you’re looking for information about a particular place, or would like to know about our experiences there, use the form below to inquire. It’s always fun to chat with people who are looking to plan their next “nakation!”

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING WE’VE ALREADY BLOGGED ABOUT?

Alternatively, if you would like to suggest a place we need to add to our list, or have some other question regarding our naturist travels, we invite you to fill out the form below…

Hope this is useful, and that others can benefit from our thirty years (Oy!!) of naturist travel experience. Bon voyage!

In the meantime, here are the links to those previous posts:

One-Hundred Naked Places – North America

Revised – June 2019

One-Hundred Naked Places – Africa, Asia, and Australia

Currently being revised

One-Hundred Naked Places – France

One-Hundred Naked Places – Europe (other than France)

Under Construction

One-Hundred Naked Places – Caribbean, Central and South America

Under Construction

The Stigma of Social Nudity in the Age of Casual Sex… Please explain this to me!

11 Comments

This is sort of a slow starter, so I hope you will “bare with me” until I get to the twist!

I was chatting with my millennial friend Addie the other day about outing oneself as a naturist through social media, noting that we both work in education related fields that frequently involves working with minors, and a well-intended misstep could easy escalate into an unintended kerfuffle. In fact, I endured one such incident about a year ago when my naturist platforms became entangled with my professional profile; when Facebook algorithms grabbed my Instagram data and started asking all my professional colleagues to follow Naturist Dan!

I found the glitch and disabled the effected accounts for a few weeks and essentially shrugged it off as, “Well now, there are a few more people who’ve seen my naked ass than existed three days ago.” One never knows the long-term implications of such an episode, but at the same time, I’m finding that one of the benefits of aging is caring less and less about such things, as my professional endeavors are gradually taking a backseat to my ambitions for personal fulfillment. If I had a therapist, I suspect he’d say that I’m making good progress with that.

It’s here in the conversation where a reader will typically chime in to admonish me for not coming out with the Full Monty, proudly posting photos on any social media platform that will allow full-frontal nudity, while fervently proclaiming, “I’m a naturist dammit! If you don’t like it, don’t look at me!” I’ve been the direct recipient of this sermon on repeated occasions, and I get it! We can’t fully normalize social nudity if we are apologetic at best; coy at least about revealing our identity. In my case, even if the platform allows it, (e.g. Twitter) I have yet to post personal photos that reveal genitalia, nor am I willing to let anything out there that could be picked up by facial recognition software. I’m really not eager for someone to go searching for my latest bio pic before an upcoming professional presentation, only to find me butt naked at the swim-up bar at a Mexican naturist resort. (Thank you Google Image search… you’re miraculous!)  In fact, that would be awkward even if I had swim trunks on!

But here’s where the conversation gets interesting!

As the youngest of four, my older siblings were young adults during the Summer of Love. Despite the fact that we lived only an hour away from the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, I don’t think any of them were “cool enough” to really get into that scene, nor did they exploit the era of “any California beach could be a nude beach!” Truthfully, we were a blue-collar, Protestant work ethic, All-American Family, and the social norms of the household were extremely clear. “Thou shalt not bare thy ass in public, and should you choose to have sex before marriage, you are destined to burn in hell!” By the time I came of age, the Moral Majority was on the rise and Family Values were the heartbeat of every political campaign. With the sudden proliferation of AIDS, the once common bathhouses of San Francisco were shuttered as dens of promiscuity, and the Summer of Love gave way to the Cold War on Sexuality. “Put your clothes on, cut your hair, and get on board with Nancy Reagan’s message about abstinence and maybe we can save ourselves from the moral collapse of America.”

I mentioned Addie at the front of this piece. (You can read her guest blog posts here and here.) She is roughly the age of my own children, and embraces a similar ideology of my own children. She is neither promiscuous, nor is she narrowly conservative. And thus, given her moderate live and let live perspective, the knockout punch was her consternation as to what exactly the average rank and file human thinks naturists do when they get naked together?

Of course, any seasoned naturist knows that you have to be careful when choosing your nakation destination, should you inadvertently stumble into a swingers retreat when it wasn’t your desire to make new friends with immediate benefits. But Addie’s immediate counter to that was, “But why the hell should anyone even care about that? How many 25-30 year olds haven’t been to a social gathering in the past ten years where casual sex and hooking up with a new acquaintance was simply part of the third beverage and beyond protocol?!?” Just who chooses to participate, and what benefits they are willing to provide is a matter of personal preference, but am I just being delusional when I observe that anyone outside of today’s super-conservative religious enclaves has long since accepted today’s terms of casual sex, and even the stigma around “open relationships” has increasingly morphed over to, “Yeah…  I guess if it works for them… whatever.”

So, as I scroll through innumerable memes on Twitter with catchy sayings like “Nudity doesn’t equate sex,” or “Newd isn’t Lewd,” it suddenly occurs to me that the social construct of promoting social nudity is even more complicated than I thought!

To that end, I thought I would see if I could create a new set of guidelines to help us all get on the same page. Let’s see…

  • Sex before marriage = Well, of course. Expected.
  • Sex on the first Tinder date = Acceptable.
  • Sex on the second or third Tinder date = Required!
  • Party with alcohol = Expect unauthorized physical contact
  • Party with more alcohol, and good friends = Expect marginally authorized physical contact.
  • Party with LOTS of alcohol = Make sure you choose a house with enough bedrooms!
  • Come out as a naturist to your friends = Expect your friends to ask, “Are you a sexual deviant? WTF??”
  • Get caught naked on the internet snoozing on the beach = Get labeled as a sexual predator and banned by all social media as a menace to society, and maybe even lose your job.

Turns out, I guess, that nudity doesn’t equate to casual sex. For most people in 2019, casual sex is just an everyday thing. But if you dare to take off all your clothes and simply go for a walk in the woods or take a nap in the sun! What the hell were you thinking?

Photos in this post are from vintage naturist magazines located on the web.. If you find one the violates copyright infringement, please notify me and I will remove it immediately.

I ❤️ Naked Walks: Naturist Treks on European Islands (Part Two)

8 Comments

It’s one thing to find a place for nakation that allows for a leisurely afternoon of nude sunbathing by the pool, but what if you are the restless type who needs to get up and stretch your legs now and again? Such was the topic of my previous installment called I ❤️ Naked Walks, focusing on a few of our favorite places in Croatia and France where naked trekking is possible.

Fuerteventura, near Morro de Jable

The second installment in this series takes us hopping to the island of Crete, and even farther south to the incredibly remote island of Gavdos. Later, a few musings about the Spanish territories of Mallorca and the Canary Islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura – all of which afford fabulous naked walks along the sea.

GREECE: Southern Crete

We first visited Crete in 2008, flying into Chania with a good helping of fear and trepidation about renting a car to drive over the rugged mountains to the southern coast, where one will find Naturist Resort Vritomartis perched on the cliffs overlooking the Libyan Sea. Turns out the drive isn’t really that scary if you simply keep your eyes on the road, and even better now that they’ve reworked the tunnels that take you over the mountain pass with a few less encounters with wandering goats.

Just a short walk down the hill from Vritomartis is Filaki Beach, one of the only fully authorized naturist beaches in Greece. It’s actually a decent walk down to the road to the beach, and in recent years, the message has been to cover up when en route, though we find compliance with that rule to be hit and miss, and we have yet to be admonished when risking the right to bare all.

From the nearby village of Chora Sfakia, you can hire an early morning water taxi for a 15 minute clothing-optional boat ride to Sweetwater beach where you’ll find a nice mix of naturists and textiles, and even a snack bar that requires you to at least make an effort to wrap in a pareo should you wish to have a beverage or a sandwich. After a morning snooze under the scrubby trees, you can follow the coastal path to the east that will eventually bring you to the stunningly beautiful village of Loutro. I’ve made a habit of making the trek au naturel, though you most definitely need to cover up before entering the village, as there is even signage that forbids topless sunbathing near the hotels. You’ll get a good hour of naked trekking before you arrive, and there are plenty of spots to jump in the sea along the way if you’re feeling overheated. Once in Loutro, enjoy a frosty beer and some calamari along the marina before boarding the ferry back tho Chora Sfakia, thereby completing the loop!

The Vritomartis animation team organizes a wide variety of excursions each week, and we make it a point to plan our stay around the guided hike down a remote gorge that’s well off the beaten track of the more heavily touristy treks. After an exhilarating open air ride (in the back of a pick-up truck) up the hill to the trail head, the walk itself is typically about 90 minutes, followed by lunch (clothed) in the taverna in a neighboring village. I suspect there are other remote trails on Crete where naked walking would be tolerated, but again, we always exercise caution to avoid offending the locals.

GREECE: Island of Gavdos

We have made it to Gavdos twice, once on a smallish ferry that makes the round trip most days of the week from Chora Sfakia, and then a couple years later on the car ferry that runs on something of a “when we feel like it schedule” from several small ports on the southern coast.

Once considered a hippie enclave where nudity on the beach was largely the norm, Gavdos has become increasingly gentrified with the addition of several small hotels found on commercial sites like Booking.com. But we had no trouble finding roads and trails leading to various idyllic beaches where nobody seemed to care when they came upon naked hikers. Our personal favorites would have to be the walk from the sleepy village of Vatsiana all the way down to the Tripiti beach – the most southerly point in Europe – and on the north shore, Pyrgos Beach, reached by a trailhead that leads down the gentle slopes to one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve even seen. I have made the walk twice and only passed a couple others along the way; none of whom were naked, but none who seemed the least bit concerned that I was!

SPAIN: Mallorca

I’m still trying to figure out the complexities of naturism in Spain, which is even a bit more complicated on the islands that fly the Spanish flag while maintaining their own customs and traditions. That said, it seems one could get themselves in trouble pretty quickly by getting naked in the wrong place at the wrong time on Mallorca, but when it comes to the seaside trail along the coast near Colonia San Jordi, it seems that nobody much cares. The famous Es Trenc beach is well known for clear turquoise waters as well as sustained popularity with people who celebrate their aversion to swimwear. That seems to have set the tone for the trails that stretch eastward toward the lighthouse near Ses Salines and onward to the gorgeous little cove where you’ll find the smallish Mármois Beach tucked away with it’s pristine sandy beach.

While staying at the nearby Skinny Dippers Naturist Retreat, we’ve made it out daily routine to arrive at the trailhead by sunrise each morning to exploit optimal lighting for photography while beating the heat of the day.

We’ve found a few other “naked tolerant” walks on the island as well, most notably the north coast beach that stretches to the west from Colonia de Saint Pere, but we much prefer the walks near Ses Salines as we have covered at least fifteen kilometers and have yet to exhaust all the naked walking options therein.

SPAIN: Lanzarote

So… if you take a couple really big volcanoes, drop them in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco, then add a few millennia of lava flows and sediment accumulation, you end up with several barren little islands that are a little tricky to get to, but well worth it if you’re looking for a nakation spot that’s reasonably warm for most of the year.

We made our home base at the naturist village Charco del Palo, which is little more than an assemblage of self-catering apartments, a modest grocery store, and a couple local eateries that may or may not be open, depending on the season. But what you can count on is lovely beach walks in either direction from the village, without the need to even carry a pareo unless you plan on pushing the boundaries by getting too close to the neighboring villages.

While one of the locals warned us about being judicious when naked elsewhere on the island, it seems that some of the mountain trails offer excellent opportunities early in the morning, providing breathtaking mountaintop views along the way. If that seems too daring, you can most certainly count on a nice beach walk at Caleta de Famara, where we found a fairly even divide between the naked and the clothed. The bluffs along the Costa de Papagayo also seems suitable to naked trekking, with the nudist beach Playa Congrio nearby.

SPAIN: Fuerteventura

If long naked walks on an infinite sandy beach is your main squeeze, then Fuerteventura may well be your ultimate nakation destination. We spent a few days at each end of the island, first in Corralejo where we stayed in a naturist hotel that closed shortly after our visit. From that location at the edge of town, it was possible to walk quite a distance a la nude if you were willing to cover up now and again for the textile beaches adjoining to super-hotels about a mile down the beach.

But the real prize was the beach near Morro del Jable where we stayed in the apartments at Naturist Monte Marina. While we had to wrap up for the five minute walk to the beach, once along the sea, we set our sights a bit farther each morning expecting to come to a place where we would need to cover up. After walking nearly an hour-and-a-half one morning, we did finally reach a textile beach where we were feeling conspicuously naked, but I suspect had we just kept on heading north, we could have continued another hour or two. And even in August, the weather was perfect with the cool breeze coming off the water, which made 90-degrees days absolutely bearable if not downright pleasant.

So, I think I have one more installment left in this series of places for naked walking, as I have yet to talk up DeAnza Springs in California, and a couple more European locations that I will have a chance to visit in early June, so I may hold back on Part 3 until that critical research is complete!

In the meantime, I’m always looking for another place to get naked, and all the better if it allows the freedom to get out and about… in the altogether, of course!

I ❤️ Naked Walks: Our favorite places for naturist trekking (Part One)

9 Comments

Seems simple enough. Take off your clothes… and walk!

As it happens, neither of us have ever considered ourselves even remotely athletic. In fact, one could argue that a big part of what drew us into naturism in the first place was simply coming to terms with our own bodies. Neither of us had the talent nor the desire for championship skiing or body-builder weight-lifting, let alone the determination to train for bicycling across Europe. But a good brisk walk? We’re all in! Especially if it can be done in the buff.

And so it goes… that the main criteria for naturist places that garner our highest marks are those that offer the opportunity to move. In the best case, that means at least an hour’s walk at a brisk pace of about four miles-per-hour, which is about as fast as most people can walk before breaking into a run.

Doesn’t matter to us if it’s a circuit around an expansive naturist resort, or a walk along the sea where nudity is tolerated, as long as it doesn’t require getting dressed. So here is Part One of our recommendations for naked walking, hoping this will inspire a few readers to share their favorite places with us for future exploration.

CROATIA: Hvar and Istria

The naturist resorts on the Istrian peninsula are among the largest to be found anywhere on the planet. We are particularly fond of Valalta and Koversada – two resorts that face one another on opposing sides of the Lim Fjord near Rovinj. Each offers a wide variety of accommodations, and you can come pretty close to clocking your four miles simply by walking the periphery of each resort. During our last visit to Valalta, we finally figured out how to hire a water taxi from one resort to the other so we could enjoy the amenities of each, which has the potential of doubling your mileage, including a walk across the bridge to Koversada’s naturist island with our favorite fish restaurant.

Naturism is practiced throughout the Dalmatian Islands, but becomes less common as you work your way south toward Dubrovnik, due in large part to the increase of traditional tourism in the south. We have found some lovely resorts and beaches on Rab and Krk, but in terms of naked walking, our most satisfying stay was at Palmižana on a small island near Hvar, where walking naked on the trails and shorelines of the island seemed completely acceptable to the locals. Not that we passed lots of other naked people, but nobody seemed much concerned about our nudity. That works.

*See the comments below from Dalmaitian Traveler on the topic a naturism in Croatia. Insightful, I think.

FRANCE: Cote d’Argent

The Cote d’Argent, or Silver Coast of France, refers to the wide, infinite beaches of the Gironde Peninsula west of Bordeaux, on the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest corner of France. Despite the fact that the weather is not as dependable as that on the Mediterranean, this is where one will find the largest naturist centers in France, including Arnaoutchot, La Jenny, Euronat, and CHM Montalivet.

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know we are partial to La Jenny, due in large part to the fact that a walk from one end of the resort to the other and back to your chalet will likely take the better part of an hour even if you resist a deviation across the dunes to the beach. If you really want to stretch your legs, you can walk for miles on the beach in either direction without worries about needing to cover up. Even if you have enough stamina to make it to the next village up the coast where most people are donning swimsuits, it seems the locals have grown accustomed to the random naked person wandering along the surf, and scarcely bat an eye.

Interestingly, there is a bike path that runs behind the dunes for much of this coastline, and from time to time, notice goes out that the gendarmes are “patrolling the path” to issue citations to those who think they can cross from the resort to the beach without at least covering one’s genitalia. We’ve never been the subject of such an interrogation, but it all seems pretty absurd, since anyone traveling the bike path will have certainly encountered naked people through the wire fence while passing the resort. Should someone stop anyplace in this region to have a peek over the dunes to the beach, chances are better than not they will be accosted with naked bums – young and old. But back to the point, we typically keep a pareo handy just in case, but rarely bother to wrap up, even at the risk of being caught with our pants off.

FRANCE: Ile du Levant

I’ve written quite a lot about Ile du Levant over the years as we tend to visit annually, if only for a long weekend each year. We think it’s just the right balance of civilization and wilderness, with several excellent restaurants (some of which encourage naked dining!) and a seaside trail that is especially inviting early in the day before the heat makes the walk back up the hill into the village too intense. (We’re fond of staying at Heliotel near the center of the village at the top of that hill, which means a steep climb at the end of any trek to the sea.)

Nudity on Ile du Levant is more complicated than one might think, (see our previous blog post, “Yet another round of CRAZY on Ile du Levant“) with strict rules pertaining to nudity near the ferry port, as well as a quirky policy that allows you be completely naked in the town square as long as you don’t stop to chat with a friend, in which case, you’re required to wear “le minimum” or face a potential fine. Reportedly, nobody ever gets more than a warning, and even those are seemingly rare, but it’s an ongoing controversy that keeps the French naturist community abuzz. It’s easy to find your way around the island without crossing the square, though you can’t get to the island’s only sandy beach without passing the port, which requires covering up for a minute or two until you’re a hundred meters or so around the corner. Of course, the curious people on the ferry will still see naked people if they’re looking for them, some who appear delighted to smile and wave to passengers from the rocks just beyond the port area. Yet another exercise in prudish futility.

FRANCE: Origan Village Naturist

I think France boasts well over 200 naturist establishments, though we think Club Origan is particularly special, if only for the naked walking potential. Situated about an hour north of Nice in a steep valley in the Var, the resort lies just above the village of Puget-Theniers. Accommodations range from tent camping to modest portable type bungalows, but it’s the location that makes the place. Since the property line extends well up the hillside toward the ridge, a trail looping from one end of the resort, along the ridge, and down the other side provides a solid hour-and-fifteen minute daily workout, providing you’re in good enough shape to scramble up the mountain in good time. The views are spectacular, and the mountain-top blue skies are exactly what you’d hope for when you think of the South of France.

Alternatively, you can make your way past the front gate and about another 20 minutes down the gorge to the river where apparently locals who ride the commuter train up the valley have grown accustomed to the naked people frolicking in the water. In either case, summer days in Provence can become unbearably warm, so we try to work out our day to take on the mountain while the air is still cool. And since you never actually leave the property of the naturist resort, you don’t need to worry about covering up en route.

CORSICA: Beaches, mountains, and waterfalls

While officially part of France, Corsica has a culture that is uniquely… well… Corsican! I suppose that an inherent peril of being located in such a strategic location just off the coast of mainland Europe is that just about every modern civilization has tried to overrun the Corsican people at one time or another, but as of this century, the people on Corsica speak French (and Corsican!) while the people on the next southerly island – Sardinia – speak Italian. Fortunately enough, with the French language comes a proliferation of naturist places, making Corsica the preferred naturist destination of these two Mediterranean islands.

The long, sandy Linguizzetta beach on the eastern coast of the island must harbor at least a half-dozen naturist resorts, several of which cater specifically to sun-seeking Germans. We once stayed at Riva Bella, which is essentially isolated from the others, and more recently at Bagherra, where you can walk naked directly to the beach and keep right on going north for several kilometers until you might notice a sign that indicates the end of the naturist beach, where we then found a woman who spends her days yelling at naked people (like us) who disregard that sign and keep walking.

We are also fond of La Chiappa, where – in addition to enjoying the amenities there – you can make the 40-minute trek on the seafront trail around the cape of the island to a sweet little beach called Tahiti Plage where you’re likely to find a balanced mix of textiles and naturists, young and old, peacefully co-existing. There’s even a modest snack bar hidden in the trees, but you’ll need to cover at least your waist should you wish to stop in for refreshments.

Corsica has some interesting options inland as well. Especially stunning early in the season (before things get too dry) is the secluded and rustic U-Furu naturist camping that offers a 30-minute walk up to a series of pools, and if you’re timing is right, a progression of waterfalls. A great place for a picnic and some stunning naked photo ops.

On our last visit to the island, I picked up a trail guide to the vast network of hiking routes on the island, and we found a couple that were particularly remote where I was brave enough to get naked even though my wife was not so brazen. The few people we passed along the way seemed unfazed by my lack of clothing, though I had a pareo handy in case we came upon a family. One trail led to another remote waterfall where sunbathing on the adjacent rocks was simply too enticing to resist. It seems on an island the size of Corsica, the possibilities are endless.

Naked lunch on the trails in Corsica

We have also found excellent naked walks on the Canary Islands, the Greek Islands of Crete and Gavdos, on Mallorca, as well as mainland Spain, which will be good fodder for the sequel to this post. We have also found beaches in Uruguay and Australia expansive enough for a viable walk, and I’ll also give a shout-out to our favorite place on US soil located in the high-desert above San Diego where you could probably walk for days along the abandoned railway tracks.

In the meantime, if you know of a great place for naked walks that we haven’t found already, please comment here so we can go find it and explore.

Life is too short to go walking with clothes on!

A Naturist’s Labyrinth on Instagram

9 Comments

Naturism… and Instagram. Two words that are inherently problematic when they appear in the same sentence.

I have several Instagram accounts, though it’s only been within the past six months or so that I’ve become one one might consider an active IG contributor. I find it quite annoying that the platform is almost impossible to maneuver from a real computer (as there are things that can only be done from your mobile device – like posting a new photo!) and it’s even more annoying that IG has been swallowed up by the Facebook conglomerate (where I have multiple personalities as well), and you simply have to concede to the fact all those platforms are connected and it’s pretty easy to inadvertently get your wires crossed.

Why so many different accounts? Well, at the risk of invoking a cascade of rage comments from the “bare all or go home” crowd, it’s a simple fact that while what you do in your free time shouldn’t matter in your professional circles… it matters; especially when your work involves interactions with minors. Looking for an annoying example? Read this ridiculous article about the locals who staged a protest against a British Naturism event held at a water park in Great Britain last week!

And so, I have IG accounts that are connected to various elements of my professional life, but two accounts that I actually care about: one dedicated to our love of world travel (@mileagerundan), and another specifically focusing on… well, our naked asses (@naturistdan) as we’ve sought out naturist places all over the world.

Photos from @mileagerundan

I’m a little surprised at myself that I’ve gotten into the IG thing at all, but it’s turned out to be strangely cathartic! For starters, we’ve amassed over 100,000 photos since the advent of digital photography in the early 2000s, and digging back through the archives that document our travels – naked or otherwise – immediately lifts me out of the daily grind, if only to take a moment to muse over places we’ve been, people we’ve met, or moments of reveling in a great meal in a quirky cafe in Thailand.

But beyond that, it has been fascinating to watch the feed develop as the list of people I am following – naked and otherwise – has grown. Sometimes a quick shot of “naked in nature” is simply that inspirational jolt you need to augment that morning Cup of Joe. And on the mainstream travel feed, I’m forever finding places to add to our bucket list, quietly envious of some twenty-eight-year-old dude who’s working his way across Asia with one spare t-shirt and a smartphone, capturing images of nature and humanity along the way.

Photos from @naturistdan

So, this all sounds lovely, I suppose, but there are decisions to be made and strategies to be considered in shaping one’s IG presence. These perils are best documented by a recent post from Nick and Lins blog (@n_wanderings is their new IG account!) where we were fortunate enough to make their Top Twelve List of IG naturist accounts. This, after they’ve been going through something of a reconciliation process with Instagram since their account with 42,000 followers was suddenly dropped after posting a screenshot from Austin Powers that, ostensibly, was well within the criteria for acceptability.

The image that got Naked Wanderings thrown off of Instagram

I wrote to Nick and asked him about their appeal to Instagram, and whether they were able to elicit a response from an actual human. “Nope! Just automated bot responses to reiterate IG’s Terms of Agreement.” But he did send me the most recent press release that explains Instagram’s updated policy on nudity. By all counts, Nick and Lins passed the test, but alas… DELETED!

FORTY-TWO THOUSAND FOLLOWERS!! THINK ABOUT THAT! Knowing that in the current format, you get a sponsored ad for about every four or five “organic” posts on your feed, and here was an account that was playing by the rules, attracting a diverse and highly engaged audience, and POOF! Disappeared without a trace with no recourse or process for an appeal. In an age when people are so paranoid about censorship from the government, doesn’t anyone give a flip about censorship from commercial social media?

As I write this, my naturist IG account is creeping up on 1600 followers; the fully-clothed travel account continues to hover around 300 followers. Which brings up an intriguing element of the psychology of posting on social media altogether. Quite directly… Why bother?

The fervent naturist community likes to tout the mission of normalizing nudity in mainstream media. That’s certainly been my stated modus-operandus, though quite honestly, I can’t really tell if a presence on social media is actually helping or hurting the cause. It seems there are three positions on that front:

  • Converting the Converted: I don’t know that other naturists need to be convinced about the virtues of social nudity, though that sense of solidarity is sort of nice.
  • Entangling with Erotica: With all the preaching (from naturists) that nudity is not inherently sexual, I find it challenging to decide who I’m willing to follow on IG under the banner of naturism. A photo of a naked person walking in the woods, that draws you into their feed where you find photos of a couple in a deep embrace, then you scroll down and there she is posed in a decidedly seductive position. And then you’re suddenly getting suggestions for other accounts that are downright pornographic or hook-up leads for swingers. Again, no wonder people are so confused about social nudity!
  • Sustained Success to Sudden Death: So, you amass 1000 followers, or 10,000 followers, or 100,000 followers, then suddenly some algorithm in the nipple detection software catches one of your images and your entire identity disappears from the internet! Just like that! So many naturist profiles that read, “my last two accounts were deleted – Starting over!”

Starting over! Why bother? And what is that addictive drug that causes us to covet followers in the first place? That same impulse that causes you to check-in every few hours to see if your Pic of the Day is getting the love it deserves (measured in likes and comments). But if we’re going to be honest, there’s a clear hierarchy that garners “likes” in the Instagram game…

  • Pics of your family vacation will draw a handful of followers and a smattering of likes
  • Put humans in the picture (clothed) and you’ll get more
  • Put a naked human in the picture (Sorry – but especially an attractive female*) – and you’ll get a truckload of hits.
  • Hint at full frontal nudity and WOO-HOO… You’re an instant celebrity!

*I use the word “attractive” with a good bit of trepidation in this analysis, as naturists like to embrace the idea that every body is beautiful, but I think it illustrates the point.

This whole concept became a bit more curious when this topic came up with an IG-savvy friend who pointed out to me how people will follow your page just to get you to follow them back, then as soon as you do, they unfollow you! Huh! Turns out my social media friends aren’t such great friends at all!! They just liked my pic of the Golden Gate Bridge to curry my favor in adding one more follower to their own feed! Jeez! We humans are so petty!

My point in all this? Well for starters, I’m mad as hell that advocates like Nick and Lins have followed all the rules while doing all the right things to promote something I feel so passionately about – the right to embrace social nudity in an appropriate context. But in the last place, their efforts have been thwarted by the very cause they’re rallying against.

Thanks Nick and Lins. Keep up the good fight!

And what does that say for the rest of us who are chipping away at the social nudity acceptance cause. In the end, it seems that us naturist types can be as altruistic as we’d like, but amazingly enough, even given the bottomless pit of every kind of pornography anyone could ever hope for on the internet, the naturist cause will always fall victim the biological desires that sustain the human race. (Thank you for sharing your picture of Mt. Rushmore, but could you just put up a photo of a naked woman instead?) It’s simply a mystery to me why someone would spend time trolling naturist social media accounts for a glimpse of nipplage when there has never been such easy access to so much erotic material at one’s fingertips at any time. And this says nothing about the number of times I’ve gone searching for “genuine naturist information” on these very same prudish social media platforms, only to accidentally click into a thread of hardcore sex videos that have yet to be detected by the nipple and buttock detector bots. It seems those sites can survive for months – unnoticed and unfettered, even with direct links to porn sites.

Here we are in 2019. People in my age bracket have seen a fleeting image of Janet Jackson’s nipple – blurred of course, for our safety – and it’s almost impossible to set parental controls on the family computer to keep your seven-year-old from stumbling into a hard-core fetish site. All the while, protesters are gathering outside organized naturist events to “protect the children (they don’t even know) from psychological damage,” and butt recognition software is routinely freezing and deleting legitimate accounts that are lobbying for one simple concept: “A body part is a body part is a body part. Don’t objectify or sexualize. Just realize that most humans have one set of parts or the other, and they are all attractive and beautiful in their own right.”

And so, I’ll play the Instagram game for another day, knowing I’d best avoid posting an image of Austin Powers lest my followers and I are eliminated in an instant – just like that.

Humans! How can we be some complicated and so simple minded all at the same time? Can’t we all just be naked and get along?