Charco del Palo vs Vera Playa: Two Naked Villages, Two Different Rhythms

Some naturist resorts seem like treasures that you need to discover on your own. Others are so out and about that they actually become towns that simply decided the wardrobe was optional. Charco del Palo and Vera Playa sit on opposite ends of that spectrum, and that contrast is exactly what makes them such an interesting pair.

Both places offer a sense of freedom, the difference lies in which kind of freedom you prefer most.

Before you arrive in Charco del Palo, you’ve driven through sleepy towns and dry lands covered in cacti. The landscape does half the talking. Volcanic rock dominates the coastline, the ocean smacks the black stone, and the village sits in that dramatic in-between space of desert colours and deep Atlantic blue. The atmosphere is quiet and relaxed, and the village seems built for people who prefer the space around them to be silent or only filled with natural sounds.

Vera Playa shares the same clothes-free concept, but the surroundings couldn’t be more different. On your way to town, you’re driving through a typical Spanish Mediterranean coast scene packed with urbanisations on the seaside and mountains inland.

Here, the coast is sandy, and the sea is warm and calm enough to make swimming feel inviting from the first hours of daylight. The beach is also a popular social spot. Well, the beach bars at least. Instead of wind and waves, the background sounds in Vera Playa are the chatter from cafés, clinking cups, and the soft movement of people enjoying another day in the naked village.

Accommodation-wise, both are quite similar. Charco del Palo is packed with rental studios and apartments spread throughout town. In Vera Playa, similar apartments are organised within different urbanisations. It’s just very important that you book a spot in a nude-friendly urbanisation. The big difference is that Vera Playa also has an actual hotel, which Charco del Palo doesn’t have.

The best way to explain the difference between the two places is by showing you what a typical day looks like. At Charco del Palo, mornings are slow and spacious. We love heading out on the quiet paths toward the coast while the village is still mostly asleep. In the early sun, the rocks on the beach feel warm, and the glow of the morning light somehow makes the town feel even more remote. We usually encounter only a few others at that time of the day. Some are making their way down for a morning swim, a few are doing yoga on the beach, and most are heading towards the supermarket before the croissants sell out.

Vera Playa’s mornings, in comparison, arrive with more movement. People go for a naked walk with the dog, sunbathers drift toward the shore to claim the best spots or to work on their tans before the sun gets too brutal. All around, cafés are waking up with a soundtrack of clinking glasses, scraping chairs, and the first conversations of the early guests.

The whole rhythm is more communal: even when everyone is doing their own thing at Vera Playa, there is a sense of shared daybreak just because there are usually more people around.

Some people say that life in Spain is a few gears slower than in the rest of Europe. Some people say the same thing about life on an island. From this point of view, in Charco del Palo, they very well understood that they are on an island… in Spain…

We’d like to say that time doesn’t exist in Charco, but that’s not totally true. Instead, everyone seems to live on the rhythm of the sun. After breakfast, more people find their way toward the beach or settle near one of the natural pools. They will typically find a spot, open a book, nap, or simply watch the ocean do its dramatic thing.

Every now and then, someone heads out for a nude nature walk on the outskirts of town or gets dressed to explore more of Lanzarote island. Charco invites slow days. We have heard people describe it as boring. We have also heard others call it the definition of a perfect holiday. Both reactions make sense, and that is part of its charm.

In Vera Playa, it is difficult to get bored, mostly because the social energy kicks in early. Beach bars start filling with people who are still drying off from a swim. Terraces welcome nude customers all day long. There is an easy sense of permission here, a beer right after breakfast is not unusual, especially when it comes with tapas and conversations happening in every direction.

The beach starts filling up quickly on summer days, so sometimes you may need to walk a few minutes to find a spot where it doesn’t feel like you’re part of a group of strangers. Lots of visitors like to spend full days on this beach, with the occasional dip into the sea or pit stop at the bar.

There are few bars and restaurants in Charco del Palo, the most famous one being Lili’s bar, which opens at five in the afternoon. This is a popular stop for a few drinks before dinner. It is the kind of place where conversations flow easily because everyone has already spent the day doing very little, often in a pretty silent way. When darkness falls, the village quiets down again. The vibe cools, people return to their accommodations, and the town returns to its calm default setting. Waiting for another sunrise.

Vera Playa treats sunsets as another beginning. Restaurants fill up. People walk the boulevard. Even without real nightclubs, some bars stay open well after midnight, and during the summer months, the nights tend to stretch very long. The social side feels layered: dinner, drinks, another round somewhere else. Because there are so many venues and they are close together, Vera Playa is one of the very few places in the world where a naked pub crawl is a realistic holiday plan.

Both destinations are considered naked villages, but the dress code does differ here and there. In Charco del Palo, it’s very easy. Covering up is only required in the supermarket. Nudity is not only allowed everywhere else in town, it’s the most common state of dress.

In Vera Playa, covering up is also required in the shops. When it comes to bars and restaurants, the rules loosen, but they are not identical everywhere. Basically, the venues on the beach all allow nudity, within town, there’s more like an “ask first” policy. Often restaurants may allow you to be naked on the terrace but require that you put something on inside. The streets at Vera Playa have a very clothing-optional vibe. Close to the beach, you’ll find most people in the streets naked. Further in town, many opt to put something on.

By now, we hope that it’s quite clear that both places aren’t competitors but rather represent two different moods.

Charco del Palo is perfect during days when we want quiet, elemental scenery, and a slower pace. The volcanic coast makes everything feel a little raw and real. It is ideal when our idea of a good holiday involves long stretches of reading, swimming in natural pools, listening to the Atlantic, and feeling like the world has been turned down to a softer volume.

Vera Playa is for the days when we want warmth, sand, and a social backdrop that can be as active or as relaxed as we want it. This is a typical Spanish Costa vacation, but naked.

When we need to choose between both places, we are not really choosing a better naked village. We are choosing the rhythm that matches the way we want to live our days.