How to Have a Safe Naturist Road Trip during COVID-19

Another great way of keeping yourself safe is by washing your hands. A lot. It’s not the hardest thing in the world to do, it’s just something you always want to keep in the back of your mind. If you touched something that wasn’t yours, give your fingers some soap before sucking your thumb or picking your nose. You’ll be surprised about how quickly this becomes a habit. One that will even keep you safer after COVID.

We are not food planners at all. Whenever someone asks us what we’re going to have for dinner, we give them a blank stare. “How am I supposed to know? Is that really something I have to decide right now? It’s barely noon”. We’re used to going to the shop pretty much every day. Sometimes more than once a day.

This significantly changed this summer. Shops and restaurants are the typical places where you run into a lot of strangers. People who may not have read this blog post and who don’t really care about their health or yours. They touch their carts, half of the milk bottles, and pretty much every tomato before deciding which one will end up in the salad. It’s easy math, the less time you have to spend in a shop or restaurant, the less chance of picking up the virus.

Another reason why you want to plan your shopping and restaurant visits is that they might have changed opening times. For the safety of the staff and the customers, they might open late, close early, or implement a “siesta”. Some restaurants may not be open at all on days when they used to. Or work on reservation only. Or only allow a limited amount of guests. Another important first-hand tip is that public toilets in shops may not be public anymore. So better plan your pee too.

During the first days of our road trip, we were at not much more than a stone’s throw from Paris. You know, the Eifel tower, Montmartre, the Louvre, Notre-Dame cathedral. We visited none of those. We didn’t even enter Paris. The same will happen later on this trip, when we’ll be passing by Marseille with its beautiful port and busy markets, Montpellier with its many bars and terraces and the pink city Toulouse.

Those cities aren’t going anywhere. We’ll have plenty of time to visit them once the pandemic is over. But now we want to stay away from crowded places. Instead, we’re going to spend our time in nature. In parks and forests and sleepy villages. Places which, ironically, might actually not be here anymore in a decade or two.

One of the most difficult parts of this road trip will be reducing human contact with the other naturists. Naturist campsites tend to have a social atmosphere, which is in fact one of the reasons why we like naturism so much. It’s so easy to strike up a conversation with the owners of the tent next door and ending up many hours later sipping wine with half the other campsite guests. This year, that will be different. The friendly “bonjour” from everyone we pass by is still there, but the hugs, kisses, and cozy campfire reunions don’t happen as much as they used to.

When traveling in Europe, we also love to meet up with friends. People we’ve met during other trips or long time friends from home who decide to join us for a couple of days. They too carry an increased risk. One that we need to think about.

The hardest part of it all is finding the balance. Honestly, we’d rather get sick than to turn into cold asocial beings. But if avoiding a handshake can keep us from spending a part of this trip in the hospital, it’s something we do need to consider. Will we still take unnecessary risks? Definitely. This trip on itself is more dangerous than locking ourselves up somewhere. But alarm bells are ringing more regularly than they used to.

Our choice to go camping also comes from the idea that we’ll be spending most of our time outside. As naturists, the outdoors were already our most favorite place to be and now even more. The virus just doesn’t spread as easily in the open air as it does inside buildings. When the summer temperatures around the Mediterranean coast will hit their hights, we’ll probably be craving for that empty table inside the airconditioned restaurant. But we won’t take it. We’ll look for a shady spot on the terrace instead.

From what we’ve learned during the first weeks of this nude camping trip through France, traveling isn’t all that different than staying at home. We’re doing the same things with the same care. In fact, being surrounded by strangers, we’re probably even more careful than when everyone would be family. If you’re doubting about hitting the road or not, we would say go for it. Just use your common sense and keep our tips in mind. And go to naturist places, they’re not only safe, they’re also awesome!

IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: The last time we wrote about traveling in times of COVID-19, we had to add a special notice to that blog post only weeks after it was published. What seemed like ordinary flu at the time of writing, turned out to become a pandemic. So we’ll tell you right away: If this thing becomes bad again and if new quarantines would be put in place, we will stop traveling. And we sure hope that you will too.