Before we started our Naked Wanderings journey, we once took a gap year to go backpacking around Latin America. Thinking back of it now, the way we used to travel couldn’t have been more different than it is today. And not just because we wore clothes at the time.
Back in the day, we didn’t have apps or international sim cards. When we arrived at a new destination, we had to figure out how public transport works or get totally ripped off by a taxi driver. Hotels and hostels were picked from a Lonely Planet guide, and then we would just show up at the reception desk and ask for a room. Sometimes we needed to visit several hotels before we finally found something that was available and affordable.
Then came the apps
In a matter of just a couple of years, everything changed. First came TripAdvisor, which allowed us to select only hotels that had at least an 8/10 rating. (or at least a 5/10 when we were travelling anywhere more expensive than Latin America and South-East Asia). Uber made sure that the price of a taxi ride was the same as what a local would pay. Booking.com helped us compare hotel prices and get great discounts. Skyscanner helped us pick the cheapest flights, although looking back at it now, we’re not sure if that was such a benefit. Many times we would spend days crossing the globe because it was 50€ cheaper than a direct flight.
Today, the list of travel apps on our phones is endless, making our travels not just a lot easier but also a lot cheaper. Rentalcars.com helps us get the best rental car deal. BusBud does the same for bus tickets, Trainline for train tickets, and Ferryhopper for ferry tickets. And with the eSim system of Airalo, our phones are always online, often at a cheaper price than what a local provider would charge. We can literally book accommodation, transportation, activities, and even order food at the other side of the world with just a couple of thumb movements.
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The limitations
As the apps became mainstream, their selection options started growing. Booking.com allows us to choose between almost 20 types of accommodations, while Airbnb has almost 50. We can choose whether a place has an electric kettle, an emergency cord in the bathroom, or a spa bath.
We’re not kidding, right at this moment, we’re filtering on a cave on an island with surfing options that has a BBQ grill, a gym and a dedicated workspace and where the host speaks Polish or Bengali. It’s absolutely brilliant! Just for the record, this selection returned zero results, but that’s not important. What matters is that it’s possible. So many options.
EXCEPT… We happen to enjoy spending our time without clothes. That’s where it stops. “nude-friendly”, “clothing-optional”, or at least “privacy guaranteed” are non-existent among the hundreds of filters.
We may be wrong, but it’s really hard to imagine that more people are interested in an island cave with a BBQ, a gym and a Polish host than there are people who want to go on a naked vacation.
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Nude places on Airbnb and Booking.com
One could say that these websites only add new filters when the options are available. That would make total sense. The thing is, there are already plenty of nude-friendly or clothing-optional resorts on Booking.com and Airbnb. Pretty much every clothing-optional resort in Zipolite is on Booking.com. You can find Barefeet Naturist Resort in Bangkok, or book an apartment at Koversada Naturist Park in Croatia. But only if you know what you’re looking for. If you have no idea that Koversada exists, good luck trying to find it among the thousands of non-nude options.
It’s the same for Airbnb, there are many nude-friendly places on this website, but it’s really hard to find them. If you’re booking an entire place, you might get a clue of your options by looking at the pictures and scanning the area on Google Earth. But even that isn’t a solid guarantee that you’ll be sunbathing naked and so far booking a stay with just a few clicks.
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Bringing in Hipcamp
A rather new kid on the block is Hipcamp. Basically, it’s just like Airbnb, except that you need to bring your own accommodation. The hosts are typically people who own an empty field, have a huge garden or a large driveway, and want to earn some money with that. You will also find actual campgrounds on Hipcamp, just like you can find hotels on Airbnb.
We first learned about Hipcamp when we were travelling with a van in Florida. We didn’t really want to stay at textile campgrounds. Since our van had a hose, we were looking for places to camp where we could shower outside and preferably didn’t need to put our clothes back on after the shower. The pictures on Hipcamp gave a good indication of how private our space would be and how many other campsites there are. When there was only one or two sites in a large green garden, we could be pretty sure of our outdoor shower.
A few months later, we ended up at Bare Camp in Queensland, Australia. A nude campground that works uniquely through Hipcamp. This is when we truly grasped the potential of this website. Literally anyone with a bit of empty space can start a nude campground these days. But the limitation remained the same: There was no filter.
Sharing clothing-optional places on Hipcamp
One advantage of Hipcamp is that you can quite easily scan the website via Google. A quick search for “clothing-optional hipcamp Normandy” brought us to this place, for example. When we started doing some more tests, we stumbled upon a list of clothing-optional hipcamps in Australia. And then on a list for the USA.
At first, we thought that Hipcamp was taking steps towards embracing nude camping, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. These lists are created by users. This opens a very interesting door, if all of us start creating public lists with clothing-optional Hipcamps around the world, we can build a huge resource for nude travellers right on the Hipcamp website. Then maybe the owners of Hipcamp will realise the potential and become the first mainstream travel company to add “clothing-optional” to their selection criteria.
We know this is wishful thinking, but we do believe that it’s worth a try!
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I think we should all use trip advisor reviews to mention the suitability of a location for nude use. I’ve seen a few reviews that made me think places would be suitable, although sometimes that’s people saying to beware because the local beach is nude.
You can’t search the reviews but when you’ve found somewhere you think might be suitable and read through the reviews it would be very handy if a previous visitor were able to describe its suitability for nude use.
Reviews are a good way to tell if a public place (a non resort or campground) is a true “naturist” location vs. a hookup location. In my area (USA) I found that some of the public land areas (mostly state parks) that frequent nude hiking trails and watering holes may have “negative” reviews. However, those “negative” reviews come from people looking to “hook up”. They would say along the lines, “Went to “Blank” Pond as I heard it is frequented by nudists. But when I got there, I found tons of families!!! Who brings kids to a nudist swimming hole????”
Obviously, from that review, even if one has no kids, one would know it to be a true naturist spot vs place they (like myself, who sex makes them uncomfortable) may not want to attended
When reading the reviews it’s often important to read between the lines, and even then, you’re often not certain because you don’t know the person who wrote it. For example the definition of a nude beach. For some, it’s a beach where they can be naked, for others it’s a beach where everyone is naked.
Nevertheless, we do agree that writing more reviews will definitely help the community.
That is why, on Google reviews I often would often check a reviewers other reviews if I am not certain. Do they have other known (official) naturist reviews on there for Bare Oaks, CHM Montalivet, Cypress Cove, etc.
I was really amazed that the van that you rented leaked, that was terrible! Since I live in the state of Alaska which is separate from the continental United States, and the laws and attitudes here are VERY anti-nude, your travels fascinate me. I really enjoy seeing your travels.