The year we’ve been Everywhere. Kinda.

Some blog posts almost write themselves. As soon as one or two words appear on the screen, full sentences seem to come out of nowhere and before we know it, we’ve shared yet another idea, vision, or experience with you. This is not such a blog post. Several times during the last week we sat down and tried to get this going, but the sentences did not come. A pity, because it would have avoided the need to write on January 1st, a day we typically spend in bed, watching Netflix and claiming to never drink again.

But no. Here we are, trying to order our thoughts and not get too melancholic due to the lack of sleep. The reason why this blog post had to be written today is because now 2023 is truly over. How could we summarise a year when there were still a couple of days to go? Which wild adventures were still awaiting us on those last days of the year? Apparently very few, but we didn’t know that yet. We did almost get our van stuck on a dirt road in Australia though. And we had a naked New Year’s Eve party.

This visit to Australia is a milestone in several different ways. It had been a long time since we visited a new continent. Now there’s just one left. Only Antarctica remains unexplored. One day, we’ll get there but it’s uncertain if we’ll have the guts to take off any clothes. Last night we also realised that now we have celebrated New Year’s Eve in 6 different continents.

Interestingly, this has only been the second time we had a naked NYE party. After Vera Playa in Spain, we now know how Aussie naturists like their parties. Apparently with beer, wine, bourbon, a variety of snacks, a live band and a lot of dancing. One of these elements must explain the headache we woke up with this morning. We blame the band.

Australia is also the furthest we have ever been from Belgium, which we still call home even though we’re hardly ever there. In a couple of days, this record will be crashed by New Zealand though, our first “new” country in 2024. We’ve been to a number of countries last year where we hadn’t been before. This was all part of the master plan.

For several years, especially the COVID ones, we had the feeling that we were just circling around. We went to France, to Spain, to Mexico, back to France, back to Spain, etc. Partially because we knew that there we would find the stories we wanted to tell. But also out of convenience because we knew where to find those stories, how to get there, and how much it would cost us.

Going to a country you’ve never been to before is like learning a new language. You can learn the basics by reading a handful of blog posts or a travel guide, but to really understand it, you need to dive in head first. For example, nobody ever told us that Australia has quite extreme weather, that every other bird is the most colourful one you’ve ever seen, or that Aussie English sounds like drunk Irish.

Something else we hugely underestimated in Australia is the distances. This place is enormous. The time to go from east to west is similar to east to west in the USA. Maybe it’s because Australia is an island that it seems smaller than it is? In Saint Martin, we had the complete opposite. We spent quite some time thinking about where we should stay best if we wanted to visit the nude beaches. The moment we arrived on the island and drove off in our rental car, we realised that we could have stayed anywhere. Even if you pick a resort the furthest away from Orient Beach, it won’t take you much more than half an hour before you’re lying naked under a yellow umbrella.

The distances in Florida, on the other hand, appeared to be exactly how we imagined them. Because we only had a good two weeks and wanted to do as many nude things as possible, we had a really tight itinerary. And yet it all worked out perfectly. Even the one “spare day” we had reserved came at the exact right moment to exchange our leaking van for a drier model. Dry Eddie would prove to be a trustworthy companion for the rest of this trip.

How are you enjoying this blog post so far? I feels like there’s something missing, doesn’t it? Oh, I know! We’ve hardly talked about the nude places yet. As we got naked in 6 continents in more or less 12 months, 2023 gave us the unique opportunity to see similarities and differences.

As Europeans, we are very used to the concept of commercial resorts. Places that are run as a business, like any other hotel, guesthouse, or campground. Clubs, where you become a member, are rather seen as something from the eighties.

Little did we know that the club system is still very popular and often the default concept in other parts of the world. In Australia, South Africa, and even the USA, most resorts are clubs with a membership system. You can visit them as a non-member, but it will be more expensive. Sometimes this is quite extreme, for example, in Florida, it’s not uncommon to pay up to $100 USD per night for a campsite. That’s a lot of money for just a patch of grass where you need to put your own accommodation. For members, it’s A LOT cheaper. This price difference is, of course, an encouragement to become a member, but for tourists, it’s a big bite in the budget.

In the Caribbean, Mexico, and Asia, it’s the other way around. If there are clubs, they are most likely to be non-landed. Resorts are commercial businesses. One exception is Dragonfly Resort in Thailand which does work with a membership system but without making the place ridiculously expensive for tourists.

Nude beaches are often a hit or miss. We have found wonderful nude beaches where people of all ages and genders seem to be having the time of their lives, and we’ve seen other beaches with just a handful of naked guys, all standing up and eyeballing each other. As if aliens just finished their examinations and dropped them back on Earth. We’ve seen nude beaches that are among the most beautiful places we’ve ever seen and others that aren’t more than a couple of sharp rocks.

European nude beaches often fall somewhere in between. They are rarely large, wide, or very beautiful, with the exception of those connected to a nude resort like the beaches of La Jenny or Euronat at the French Atlantic Coast or Linguizzetta beach next to Bagheera resort in Corsica. These don’t just look amazing, they also tend to have a great ambience.

The nude beaches in South Africa are probably the most beautiful ones we’ve ever seen, but other than the one in Cape Town, they were also very deserted. In Canada, we often found a great vibe at the nude beaches, and in Florida, we were surprised by both their accessibility and popularity. On a sunny day at any of the official nude beaches in Florida, one could easily mistake them for European ones.

Last year, we also had the opportunity to talk with a huge variety of people from many different backgrounds and from many different places. The most important lesson we’ve learned during our travels is that the perception of social nudity keeps changing. You may have noticed that we’ve largely been avoiding the words “naturist” and “nudist” in this blog post. This is because we’re meeting more and more people who don’t identify with these terms. They go to nude beaches, nude resorts, or nude events, but don’t call themselves naturists or nudists.

We’ve always hated it when people said that naturism is ageing. We always said that it is not, look at us, do you want to call us old? Today, we’re not so sure about this anymore. We are certain that there are many young people who enjoy social nudity, maybe even more than ever, but many of them don’t see themselves as naturists. It’s something they do, rather than something they are.

Resorts seem to be picking up on this trend. New resorts that are opening up often prefer terms like “clothing-optional” or “clothes free”. Will “naturist” and “nudist” take the same direction as “FKK”? (has anyone seen an FKK Resort open up in the last decades?). We don’t know, but what we do know is that there are places where you can enjoy social nudity in more countries than ever before and that although the younger generations may be reluctant to adopt the terms, they do still take off their clothes.

Where does that bring us on this first day of 2024? At Kiata resort near Sydney, our last stop in Australia, on our last continent during this “Nick and Lins are going naked in every continent of the world except for Antarctica trip“. Now that this project is behind us, what will be next? During the coming months, you will see and read a lot about our adventures in Australia and New Zealand and meanwhile, we’ll be making travel plans for the rest of this year.

At the moment, we’re not sure yet where the wind will take us now, but we’re certain that there are still many naked places left for us to discover and to share with you. We have been travelling continuously for the last 6.5 years and we have no intention of stopping any time soon. We love what we do, we live our best lives and that is all thanks to you!

So we would like to end this – meanwhile very long – blog post with a HUGE THANK YOU! Thanks a lot for sticking with us all this time. Thanks for reading our blog posts, watching our videos, and spreading the word. Thanks to our Patreon community for helping us afford to spend so much time creating content. Thanks to every single one of you! Without you, there would be no Naked Wanderings.

Have an AMAZING 2024 everyone!