In the not-so-distant past, naturism was primarily limited to certain regions of Europe and North America. While clubs and associations attempted to offer year-round activities, being naked in natural surroundings was often reserved for the most adventurous during specific seasons. However, the landscape has significantly transformed over the past few decades.
Today, an increasing number of countries are embracing naturism and establishing dedicated facilities for naturist vacations. This remarkable shift means that there is no longer a single moment throughout the year where you cannot find a place to be fully nude around the clock.
NOTE: In this blog post, we’ll be using the seasons of the northern hemisphere. If you’re from the southern side of the world, just switch summer and winter 🙂
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Summer naturist destinations
Let’s start with the most obvious and the easiest of all: Summer, from June to September. These are the heydays for naturist resorts in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Every naturist resort is open and the choices are plenty. From mid-July to mid-August, it’s the very high season, which means the most chances for great weather but also for higher prices. If you’re planning to travel in these months, it’s best to book upfront to make sure that there’s availability.
In Europe, and we imagine also in the other places mentioned, July and August are when the families like to travel (due to school holidays, of course). This means that there will be a vibrant atmosphere and many young people. June and September tend to be a bit more quiet and relaxed and this is when you’ll find more couples without children.
Natural water temperatures in the northern hemisphere tend to be the highest around August/September, so if you enjoy skinny dipping in lakes, rivers, seas, or oceans, you probably want to take this into account.
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Spring/Autumn naturist destinations
Lots of naturist resorts open their doors in April and close them again at the end of September or early October. But shoulder seasons are often a hit or miss, you can get lucky and have excellent naturist weather, or you can spend most of your time in trousers and a jacket.
Luckily, there are a number of places where your chances of great weather are quite high and where the naturist resorts actually thrive during these seasons. The southern Spanish coast, for example, is often better visited during the shoulder seasons because of the very high temperatures in summer. Croatia also tends to have better weather in spring and autumn than most other parts of Europe and so does the south of Italy. Also states like Texas and Florida are often better visited during the shoulder seasons.
Another great example is Corsica island in France, where you can find the amazing Bagheera Naturist Resort and Riva Bella Resort. The island tends to get quite crowdy during the summer months, and thanks to its mild climate, lots of people prefer to go just before or after the summer when it’s much more relaxed to travel around and the sea water is warm enough for morning skinny dips.
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Winter naturist destinations
In wintertime, you want to be on or below the equator. We’ve been happily surprised by what South Africa has to offer to the naturist traveller and also for Australia and New Zealand, this is when the true naturist season is happening. By the way, did you know that skinny dipping is legal everywhere in New Zealand? We recently learned, and it’s a reason to get over there soon. In winter, of course.
In Europe, you may still find some naturist resorts that are open but don’t expect to be naked 24/7. An exception is the Canary Islands, which are technically Europe but are located off the coast of Africa. Especially Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are popular among naturists and these islands are actually better visited in winter because they get strong winds during the summer months.
Something that doesn’t really fit in this list because it doesn’t happen outdoors, but is well worth a mention is the European spa culture. Mostly in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany, you’ll find a striving spa culture with centres that look like waterparks for grownups. By the way, fun fact! Did you know that “spa” is short for “Sanus Per Aquam”, which is Latin for “health through water”. We just learned this a week ago.
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Year-round naturist destinations
Last but not least are the countries that have such an ideal position in the world that it never really gets cold. These are the places where you could move over there, burn all your clothes and live naked for the rest of your life. Given that you’re not planning to ever leave the resort, of course.
For quite a while, the Caribbean had somewhat of a monopoly on year-round naturism, with resorts on several islands like the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Saint Martin. The Mexican Rivièra Maya has built quite a reputation too with resorts like Hidden Beach, Intima, and Playa Sonrisa. But since the last decade, it seems like they have to give the crown to Zipolite on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, which keeps growing in popularity among naturists and is home to the famous nudist festival.
Brazil and Bali provide year-round options for naturists too, but the biggest grower of all must be Thailand. In a recent video, we made the joke that naturism grows so fast in Thailand that a new resort might pop up just after we leave the country. Now guess what just happened… This is not a joke.
Important to mention here is that although these countries have excellent temperatures year-round, many of them do have a dry season and a rainy season. So you might want to plan accordingly. On the other hand, you’ll get wet in the pool anyway.
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You seems to be focused on resorts. What about public nudist places?
My understanding is that South Africa or Thailand are poor choices for this. While the Canary Islands have a large amount of public nudist beaches.
Indeed, this blog post is mostly about resorts because we think that most people who go on a naturist vacation actually want to stay at a naturist venue. But, of course, not everyone. And you’re very right about the Canary Islands in that case.
That’s a very narrow view on naturism.
My understanding is that where the laws and customs strongly prohibit public nudity, there is a real need for private places where such a thing is allowed. Whereas in places where public nudity is considered normal, there is not as much a need for such private places. The obvious example is Spain: whereas there are relatively few naturist resorts, the fact is that in pretty much any coastal town, you can find some space where nudity is a normal thing.
True. This is why we used term “naturist vacation” and didn’t call the blog post “where to enjoy naturism year-round”. Of course, there are naturists who prefer staying in textile hotels or private accommodations and then visit a nearby nude beach, but we think that when people research naturist vacations, most will be looking to stay in naturist resorts.
Okay, let’s talk about this “naturist vacation”.
First, a reminder, you used the term “naturist” and not “nudist”. As you probably know, there is a difference between the two, and naturism is much more than being nude, it implies living in simplicity in close contact with nature.
Now, let’s be fair, I’ve watched the video where you’re staying in that luxurious resort having a cocktail in a Jacuzzi. Does it have anything to do with naturism? Not the least, there is absolutely nothing natural in that. It has to be said that luxury is in complete opposition to the idea of naturism. Is that nudism? One could argue that being nude in a *private* Jacuzzi has nothing to do with nudism. But okay, there seem to be a small common area with a pool.
Living in simplicity in close contact to nature? Nothing.
In reality your blog post doesn’t get close to any of the aspects of naturism. It concentrates on a limited set of luxurious commercial nudist touristy places (are they sponsors?).
Thanks for your comment, Peter.
Since the very beginning of Naked Wanderings, we have been struggling with the terminology. Most of the time, we’ll use nudism and naturism interchangeably, because these terms have different meanings in different parts of the world. We lean towards naturism because that’s the most common accepted term in Europe, as well as in Canada, South Africa, Asia and Oceania. But in Latin America and the USA, the common term is nudism and to them, it means the exact same as what naturism means to us.
Since the seventies, the International Naturist Federation (INF-FNI) used to write about naturism as: “Naturism (American: nudism)”. In the year 2000, they removed the “(American: nudism)” part from the definition, probably because that’s when the American Association of Nude Recreation (AANR) decided to leave the INF-FNI.
Today, the official definition of naturism is: “Naturism is a way of life in harmony with nature, expressed through social nudity, linked to self-respect, tolerance of differing views as well as respect for the environment.” We could argue that the “in harmony with nature” and “respect for the environment” parts are indeed a contradiction with luxury hotels that are mostly made out of concrete. But the definition doesn’t doesn’t say anything about luxury in general. The “tolerance of differing views” part, does give the idea that different naturists should be able to enjoy naturism in their preferred way.
What’s most important is that there are a lot of blanks that people can fill out for themselves. We’ve met naturists who believe that any kind of private venue (even clubs) are non-naturist and that only beaches and other public places are real naturism. On the other hand, we’ve met naturists who never set a foot on a nude beach and believe that only the private venues are naturist. In the end, it doesn’t really matter to us. We are in favour of every single place that allows and promotes non-sexual social nudity.
In fact, we would prefer to stop using the terms naturism and nudism altogether and just talk about non-sexual social nudity. But whenever we say this to a person, they reply “do you mean naturism/nudism?” 😁
When it comes to determining whether or not a place fits to the idea of naturism, we think that this must be evaluated on a case to case basis. We’ve been to big hotels that are doing a great job with waste reduction, using sustainable energy, etc. On the other hand, we’ve also been to campsites deep in the woods that use diesel generators because they can’t connect to the power grid.
That’s an interesting point from Peter, so let me ask the question again: are you sponsored by the resorts shown in your videos?
Obviously you can’t get sponsored by public beaches, so that fact alone may give us some strong hints about why you seem to care so little about public beaches and so much about private resorts.
Just like, you know, the sudden interest of many youtubers to warn you about the dangers of using public wifi may have a link with them getting sponsored by VPN companies …
Obviously we regularly have sponsorship deals with resorts, companies, etc. This is partially why we can spend so much time creating content. But that doesn’t mean that our content is biased. We follow the code of ethics of content creators to only accept deals with companies that we believe in. If we would accept every deal just for the money and start providing false or incomplete information, our whole concept would fall apart like a house of cards. It’s similar to how atletes are sponsored by sports clothing brands, they’ll only accept the deals that will help them perform better.
About public beaches, we would recommend that you read this blog more carefully because we have lots of content about nude beaches. Not the last months, because there aren’t any in Asia, but you can read about nude beaches in Europe, South Africa, Mexico, California, Brazil, Canada, etc.
In one of our latest videos we also had a sponsorship deal with a VPN company and we’re very thankful for that, because they help cover the creating cost of the video and they gave our audience a very interesting discount. The dangers of using public wifi are very real, we learned this the hard way. We can tell you, if you have to block your credit card when you’re 10 000 kilometers away from your bank, it’s not a good day.
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great info as usual thanks
As for your newsletter questions…
1.) “What’s your side of the world?”
– Sweden (or mid/northern half of our looong country).
2.) “How is naturism over there?”
– Not so much, I’d say, from my own experience with others. If you’d ask me I live naturism 24-7. The only thing so called “naturists” here do is getting no-tan-lines on the beach and nothing else. I’ve tried to get clubs here into nude walks/hikes, but nada. We don’t have WNBRs (Worls Naked Bike Ride) here or not even topless protesters. No one seems to be first in Sweden to arranging nude bike rides. Not even Pride parades here have nude people cheering in them… So it’s not much as I said.
3.) “And how is the climate?” Are you at one of those places where you can enjoy naturism year-round, or is it more of a seasonal thing?
– I’d say it’s a seasonal thing as we have fall, winter and spring 9 months of the year and not muck summer.
4.) “Do you have lots of cool naturist activities planned?”
– Me, on the other hand, am busy doing naturism stuff all year around. Naked. For example, during the fall, winter (with lots of snow) and spring I go on shorter nude walks or longer nude hikes. Maybe not so often as in the summer (even though I’d love to) but still. On last WNHD (World Naked Hiking Day), a few weeks ago, I also carried around my tent on my nude hike. That means that I slept in it over-night, before I went home again the day after that.
More… On Monday (it’s Saturday now) I will go on my 15th(!) Nude Orienteering day, since start in mid-May, if the weather still allows it.
Well that’s just a few example of my awesome naturism choice of life (more in my Instagrams @mynaturistbackup14, @mynaturistbackup.16 and @christoferdossnaturist19).
/Christofer Döss Naturist, Naturism Ambassador
Just a comment… The weather allowed it, so yesterday’s Monday was super awesome as I went on my 15th(!) Nude Orienteering day this summer! <3<3<3
I spend part of the year in Uruguay and there is one official nudist beach here, and one other unofficial one that I am aware of. Uruguayans are liberal about many things, but almost nobody here has been to the nude beaches. Everyone knows where the are though.
In the Canary Islands surely Gran Canaria and Maspalomas in particular must get a mention. Many of the non-naturist hotels have naturist terraces for sun bathing and the beach is miles long with something for everyone😘👍