Last month, Naked Wanderings turned 4 years old. Our blog isn’t a baby anymore. It’s not even “just” a blog anymore. It has grown to a resource of ideas, thoughts, and information about naturism and nude vacations. For the last 4 years, we have dedicated a significant part of our lives to the promotion of naturism. Today, it feels so natural. It’s what we do, we’re always searching for new naturist spots, new insights, and new ways to enjoy our clothes-free way of living.
It feels so natural that we would almost forget how it all started. Last week, we were contacted by a writer for CNN Travel magazine. It wasn’t the first time that we gave an interview in the media about who we are and why we decided to appear butt naked on Instagram. We were happily surprised that the questions of the CNN reporter went deeper than “are you naked right now?” or “what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen at a naturist place?”. She wasn’t looking for gossip or cheap entertainment, she really wanted to write a quality article about naturism and nude traveling.
Why Naked Wanderings got started
We absolutely love that our story got featured on CNN. Not because we’re media-obsessed, but it doesn’t often happen that mainstream media want to put naturism in the spotlight. Funny enough, that was exactly our goal as well when we started Naked Wanderings.
When we experienced naturism for the first time, there was only one thought that got stuck in our heads (other than “damn, that was awesome”). We wondered why nobody had ever told us about this. All this time, we’ve done pretty much everything with clothes on. We even put clothes on to go into the sea or the pool. Swimming with clothes, it sounds so awkward today. And now, it felt like someone had left the gate to the garden of Eden open and we had somehow managed to sneak in. We had learned about a whole new way of behaving, about non-sexual nudity, and it seemed like we were among the very few who knew that this exists.
Not one of our friends, colleagues, or family members had ever talked about naturism. Or any other form of social nudity. When we went out to discover more naturist places, it even seemed like very few of our own generation knew about its existence. Even our good friend Google wasn’t able to tell us about naturism in the way that we had been experiencing it. It was time to change that.
Our big nude world trip
The idea of a long term world trip was already playing in our heads for a while. So was the idea to venture out to learn more about naturism. This appeared to be the perfect opportunity to start spreading our ideas. We wanted other people to experience naturism and also think “why didn’t anyone tell me about this any sooner?”. We wanted to counter the old fashioned information about naturism and give a fresh perspective.
Most of all, we wanted nude vacations to become something you can talk about without shame. There shouldn’t be a single difference between saying “I went shopping today” or “I went to the nude beach today”. Between telling people about the boutique hotel that you stayed at in London or the clothing-optional resort that you visited in Mexico.
Meanwhile, because we were going to stay at naturist places around the world, we could also help those who already enjoy naturism. We’re always surprised when we talk to people who have been naturists for much longer than ourselves and who don’t have a clue about what the naturist travel world has to offer. “A hotel for naturists? Really? I thought that there were only nude campgrounds”. The lack of decent information was obvious, and we were determined to fill it.
Promoting naturism is more than promoting nudity
One of the great things about running a blog is that you live more with your eyes wide open. Blogging comes with responsibility. Twice a week, a new blog post needs to be published. New insights need to be displayed and new angles need to be uncovered. Preferably also in a way that people actually enjoy reading. And then we’re not even talking about social media yet. It may sound like a lot of work (and it definitely is), but it also encourages us to listen to people and to experience new things.
When we started with naturism, we mostly enjoyed the freedom of being nude. Physically, by not being restricted in our movements and mentally, by enjoying life outside of our comfort zone. Then came the positive effect that social nudity has on the way that we look at our own bodies. And we didn’t even have any particular issues with our bodies. When we heard how other people conquered psychological problems just by taking off their clothes, we realized that naturism is much more than a fun pastime. That it actually helps people.
Although we started out with the simple goals of helping naturists find new naturist places and putting naturism in a more positive light, we now noticed that our purpose got much bigger. We were helping other people feel better about themselves.
Why we keep promoting naturism
Our project became perfect. We couldn’t think of a better way to spend our days: Nude and traveling. Our two passions combined. And along the way, we were helping people in many different ways. It’s a dream that came true…
But you know what they say about dreams. A couple of months ago, we noticed a flaw in our perfect project: It was completely built on the perception that we can always jump on a bus, train, or plane and end up in a new place where we find new naturist venues, meet new naturists and get new impressions. Who would have guessed that this would suddenly stop?
Luckily, naturism is about much more than sunny nude beaches and awesome naturist resorts. Even if we’re stuck in an Airbnb room in Belgium, with a cold winter quickly coming towards us and no idea about when we’ll be able to hit the road again, we still have lots of other ways to talk about naturism and to inspire people.
Even if you can’t travel right now, even if you can’t go to the spa and even if all nude events get canceled, you may still have had a great time reading this blog post. Or one of the many others that we’ve written. Maybe we’ve helped you to feel good about yourself or maybe we’ve only put a smile on your face. For us, that’s reason enough to keep doing what we’re doing.
Support Naked Wanderings
Do you like what we do for naturism and naturists?
Did we make you laugh or cry?
Did we help you find the information you were looking for?
Then definitely join our Patreon community!
Congratulations, you guys! You do awesome job here.
I have had a great time reading this blog post. And many others that you’ve written. You’ve helped me to feel good about myself and you’ve more than put a smile on my face.
I just wanted to tell you that.
Thanks a lot Bill!
You’re welcome. And again, thank you for what you do.
Ik lees jullie post zoveel mogelijk. Ga door met het verspreiden van het woord. Jullie geven al aan dat het niet altijd om bloot gaat, maar dat het een levensstijl is.
You’ve definitely brought more awareness. I don’t see change coming to the US anytime soon.
We invite you to contact Cameron from Christian Naturists of America: [email protected]
He’s interested in hearing more experiences from American Christian naturists and maybe he can help you enjoy naturism to the fullest.
Thanks. Unless I’m able to convince my wife, my time being a naturist will be limited to when I have the house to myself or away on business. That doesn’t happen often especially now that we have a baby. It will be awhile before I travel for work thanks to COVID-19.
Bravo pour ce que vous faites.
J’aime être le plus souvent dans ma tenue de naissance. J’en oublie, parfois, de penser à m’habiller en sortant !
Espérons que l’avenir nous permette d’en vivre pleinement.
Goed werk en gewoon doorgaan. Over naturisme wordt vaak heel moeilijk gedaan, maar het is gewoon niets aan. Het is blootgewoon. In Nederland doet statisch gezien 1 op de 7 het. ( 2,5 miljoen van de 17,5 miljoen.) Dat is leuk om als je je verveelt bij een bijeenkomst om te fantaseren en te bedenken wie er naturist zou kunnen zijn.
Happy 4th Birthday 😉
thanks Kris!
Congratulations! The following passage particularly resonated with me:
“When we experienced naturism for the first time, there was only one thought that got stuck in our heads (other than ‘damn, that was awesome’). We wondered why nobody had ever told us about this.”
In my case, when I first went nude into the Caribbean at Cupecoy beach in Sint Maarten in 1996, my only regret was that I hadn’t found out about nudism much earlier, for instance, by about two decades, when my sons were babies.
If we got a peso for everyone who’s ever told us that they wished that they learned about naturism earlier… We’d be living in Zipolite right now 🙂
It’s one of the goals of Naked Wanderings, tell people not to wait until their sixties to give naturism a try.
You claim to see nothing wrong with nudity, but the fact that you don’t post full frontal photos suggests that either you do, or else you are influenced by the warped mainstream values of those who do. You even hide breasts, when the prohibition against showing them is so blatantly sexist. It seems like you have a fun life, and I’m glad you’re willing to share it. Still, I wish you would consider using images to take a stronger pro-naturalist position.
Hi Patrick, our use of self-censored pictures comes from the social media restrictions. We spend a lot of time taking pictures and would spend much more if we had to make social media proof and non-social media proof pictures in every setting. So we just use our social media proof images everywhere.
An additional advantage is that we don’t get lots of perverts visiting our blog and that our images rarely appear on porn sites.
And lastly, we believe that naturism is about being nude and not about seeing/being seen nude. You can clearly see in our images that we’re nude and that we’re spending time at naturist venues. Would our images be so much more convincing if you could see a couple of breasts, a vagina, and a penis? We doubt it.
It would be more natural. I doubt that when you introduce yourself to people, you cover up your privates.
Nick and Lins only want you following their blog if you are social naturist that travel. If you are not, then this is not the blog for you according to them.
Those who are social naturist better be careful with their comments on their Instagram account. They could block you if they don’t like your question.
You forgot to mention that we had already blocked you twice before on our Instagram 😉
You’ve only blocked me once. What was so wrong for asking why you don’t post photos from home? I thought it would have gone better with your post about being in lockdown in Belgium.
Bonjour.
Je comprends la manière dont vous prenez les photos diffusées ici. Cela permet de ne pas être censuré & par conséquent être vu par le plus grand nombre d’internautes.
Grace à ce que vous faite le naturisme donne encore plus envie à de plus en plus d’hommes et femmes de notre monde.
Vivons nus & libres…
Merci à Nick & Lins .
Merci beaucoup pour les aimables paroles!
So all we are left to do for now is to thank you for what you’ve built here, and everything you’ve gave to us all. Thank you very much. I hope this continue for a longer time. Hugs!
My girlfriend and myself read your blog on a regular basis.
I’m glad that you demistify naturism. We’re still relatively young and when we first tried it, we were concerned it’d be full of the proverbial old people. Well – it was where we went the first time but subsequent places, we saw more and more younger people and I’m sure you help this a lot.
Will check out the Patreon too.
Keep up the awesome work.
Hi Milan, we definitely understand what you mean. When we first tried naturism, we also went to several places where we were the youngest. By far. It takes a while to figure out where the young naturists hang out 😉
Where are u from ?
Heya again,(i posted on another post 1st) , i , by pure accident found out, that a .. well, famous id say family in my city ,are naturists, and whats even more interesting is that they posted that on their FB ,that they were on a naturis vacation this summer, not keeping it a secret from anyone obviously ,including their own family`s , their kids friends , i mean, its a public profile , so anyone can see it.
Intersting ,considering how conservative the society is here as u remember me explaining the difference of now as compared to the communist era.
Tho just to set it straight, im my eyes, a conservative person is nothing more then a liberal one that doesnt have the balls to addmit it lol.
That’s the thing, humans are herd animals. We do the things that people like us do. If we don’t know anyone who goes on a naturist vacation, it’s not very likely that we will be the first to try. Even if we know that naturist vacations are a billion-euro industry, it seems like it’s not something “people like us do”.
If everyone who went on a naturist vacation last summer would write something about it on their Facebook, it could create a whole different mentality.