The naturist travel guide: how to plan your first clothing-optional trip

Start with the kind of trip, not the country

Naturist travel splits into four broad shapes, and picking the right one matters more than picking the right country. A resort or holiday village is a self-contained place where being undressed is the norm everywhere — pool, bar, shop, tennis court. A campsite is the same idea with your own pitch or mobile home, usually family-run and cheaper. A nudist beach is a stretch of public coast where nudity is either officially designated or long tolerated, with no gate and no staff. A sauna or thermal resort is an indoor, adults-only day out, textile-free inside the sauna zones.

First-timers usually have the easiest time at a sauna day or a beach: both are low commitment, and you can leave whenever you like. A week at a resort is a bigger step, but it is also the version of naturism most people fall in love with, because after the first hour nobody is thinking about it any more.

Where the season actually works

Outdoor naturism is a temperature sport. Southern Spain — Vera Playa in Almería, the coast either side of it — is comfortable from April to October and never truly cold, which is why so many northern Europeans winter there. The Canary Islands, Maspalomas above all, work all twelve months. Catalonia, the Balearics and the French Mediterranean run roughly May to September, with July and August hot, busy and expensive.

Northern Europe flips this around. The Dutch and German thermal resorts are at their best from October to March, when a cold garden and a hot sauna are the whole point. That makes a neat two-season habit: sun in the south in summer, steam in the north in winter.

• ·All year: Canary Islands, Dutch and German saunas, indoor spas
• ·April–October: Almería, Murcia, Alicante, the Algarve
• ·May–September: Catalonia, Balearics, French Mediterranean, Croatia
• ·Shoulder months (May, June, September) give warm water and half the crowd

Read the rules before you undress

Legality varies more than people expect, and it is worth five minutes of checking. In Spain, public nudity is not a criminal offence nationally, though some municipalities have their own by-laws about being naked in town streets rather than on the beach. In France, designated naturist areas are explicit and well signposted, and nudity outside them is not. Croatia has a long, relaxed FKK tradition. In the Netherlands, nudity is allowed at designated locations and in sauna complexes, where textile-free bathing is simply the house standard rather than a special event.

Inside a resort or sauna, the house rules matter more than the law. Almost all of them share the same short list, and staff will enforce it without embarrassment.

• ·Sit on your own towel, everywhere, every time
• ·No cameras and no phones in changing areas, pools or sauna zones
• ·Nudity is expected in the sauna world, a robe is normal in walkways and restaurants
• ·Most saunas and clubs are adults-only, 18+; family campsites are not
• ·Ask before joining a conversation, and take a no gracefully

What to pack

Less than you think, but a few specific things. Two towels are better than one: a large one to lie on and a smaller one for the sauna bench. A bathrobe is close to compulsory in Dutch and German thermal resorts and is often available to rent at the door. Flip-flops keep you comfortable on hot tiles and hot sand. Bring swimwear even to a naturist trip — some resorts have swimwear-only pools, hotel breakfast rooms and adjoining public beaches.

• ·Two towels, a sarong or robe, flip-flops
• ·High-factor sun cream, applied to places that have never seen sun
• ·Swimwear for mixed or textile zones
• ·A light cover-up for walking to and from the beach

Etiquette, plainly

Naturism has a reputation for rules, but the whole code fits in a sentence: be ordinary. Don't stare, don't photograph, don't comment on bodies, don't stand when you can sit on a towel, and treat the place as though your neighbour is a stranger you will see again tomorrow — because you will.

The one distinction worth understanding before you book is between naturist venues and liberal or swinger clubs. Both are adults-only and both appear in this directory, but they are different cultures with different expectations. Naturist resorts and beaches are non-sexual social spaces. If you want the other thing, book the venue that says so.

How to choose a specific place

Once you know the shape of the trip and the season, the rest is detail: is it textile-free all the time or only on certain days, is it adults-only, is there accommodation on site or do you need a car, and is the place still open. Every entry in this directory shows when we last checked it and links out to the venue's own website, so you can confirm prices and opening dates at the source before you commit.

Keep reading

• Naturist Spain
• Naturist France
• Naturist Netherlands
• Naturist Croatia