Euronat is Europe’s Largest Naturist Resort, but What Does That Mean?

France has an abundance of naturist resorts, in all styles and sizes. Ranging from very small places, deep into the woods, with just a handful of camping spots to vacation domains that are several times larger than the odd French village.

Today, we’re taking you to a place in the latter category. Euronat is often said to be the largest naturist resort in Europe, or even in the world. Whether that claim has ever been proven is something we don’t know, but with roughly 335 hectares, it’s not hard to imagine that it could very well be the case.

The driveway already gives something away. While many naturist campsites are accessed via a small country road on which you just keep hoping that no other vehicle will suddenly appear in the other direction, at Euronat, the entrance is a wide lane that takes you to the parking lot in front of the reception building.

While you’re waiting to be checked in, your eyes are attracted to the big map of the domain. Right through the middle is the main road that runs straight to the beach, with on each side different neighbourhoods named after the different continents. The term “a world of naturism” has rarely felt more accurate.

The second thing that immediately caught our eye was the camping area. Although Euronat is often easily called a naturist campsite, it’s much more than that. In fact, the camping part is barely a quarter of the accommodation section. The other parts consist of a huge variety of rentals, and many more private properties than we expected. Calling Euronat a “naturist village” is way more accurate than calling it a campsite. And although it’s not a real village, it does have all the characteristics of one.

From roughly mid-July to mid-August, all these accommodations and camping spots run pretty much full, and about twelve thousand people per day call Euronat their temporary home. Someone told us that this time of the year, Euronat “village” has a higher population than any of the surrounding “real” villages.

Of course, all these thousands of people need to eat, drink, and be entertained. This is where resorts like Euronat differ from most other naturist campsites. Even the smaller places typically have a bar, a restaurant or snack bar, and a grocery shop where you can buy the basics to survive (read: cheese and wine). At Euronat, you have the main square, which is home to almost thirty businesses.

Meanwhile, a few weeks have passed since our visit, and our memories of the main square are already turning a bit vague. But here’s what immediately comes to mind: Seven different restaurants, two bars, a juice bar, three grocery stores, a fish shop, a bakery, a wine shop (that does tastings as well), two or three souvenir shops, a bicycle rental store, an ATM, a hairdresser, and probably a few things we’re forgetting. Euronat doesn’t just have a larger population than most towns in the area, it also provides more services.

The list above was just about the main square. When you start exploring the domain, it gets even longer, and things like the water park, the thalasso wellness centre, sports courts, and the nude beach are added. This is the biggest strength of resorts this size: they truly have something for everybody and can provide a variety of naturist vacations.

If you’re a beach bum, preferring to spend most of your vacation in the sea and sand, that’s totally possible. If you like water but not sand, there are four swimming pools for you. If you want an active vacation, the options are right there. If a vacation for you is all about food and drinks, consider it organised. You can camp in the smallest possible tent or stay in a three-bedroom villa.

What makes this definitely ideal is when you travel with people with different needs and likes, such as most families. Each can do their thing, and you all meet up for dinner at the end of the day.

With all these different options attracting people with different likes, there will also be many different “styles” of naturism. And that’s where it gets interesting. When we were reporting on social media during our stay at Euronat, the question we received the most was “Is it true that there are so many clothed people?” We visited in late May, during what was probably the first hot week of the year and were happy to mention that we didn’t notice a particularly large amount of textile.

But most of the time when we were cycling on Euronat’s roads, it wasn’t unlikely to see a clothed person pass by. There are all the obvious reasons, like some people’s ideal temperature to be nude is not the same as someone else, and with such a large number of people, some are always leaving or arriving. But what we think is the biggest reason why some people are sometimes clothed at a naturist place, while it’s totally fine to be naked, is that they have another “style”.

Here’s the thing: It’s often said about people who visit naturist resorts that they strive to be as naked as possible as much as possible. This is definitely true for many, but there are also many others who don’t feel a need to always be naked. For example, we’ve met a lot of people who enjoy being naked on the beach and on their camping pitch, but don’t feel much for walking naked, shopping naked, or dining naked. Or sports, that’s a big one too, many don’t feel comfortable doing sports in the nude.

Look at it as some kind of spectrum, with the 24/7 naturists on one end, the beach naturists on the other, and in between all kinds of different styles and likes. Most resorts naturally attract a certain part of the spectrum, while places like Euronat attract the whole spectrum. Which is why, at some point, you can find yourself sitting on the main square in 30°C, wondering why some people around you decided to dress up.

The first time we visited Euronat was back in 2018, and one thing we remember from that visit is that we were pretty tired each evening from all the walking. To give you a rough idea, the walk from the main square to the beach is about 1.5 kilometres. In total, Euronat has roughly 40 kilometres of roads and trails. We walked a lot that time.

Luckily, we remembered, so we brought bicycles this time. At the end of our 4-day stay, our mileage was nearly 60 kilometres without ever leaving the domain. We said it before, it’s a huge place. And we can imagine that some of you think that this is just too much.

When we talked about this on our Patreon channel, someone gave a really interesting insight: “For those of us lucky enough to have a chalet or mobile home here in Euronat, it is not as formidably big as it seems. There is a great community of many nationalities, many dinners chez des amis, a thriving fitness culture. And if you spend á longer time here, you’ll find it’s just a friendly village with people who know you”

Euronat isn’t much different from a real town or city. In the beginning, it will feel overwhelming. You’ll hike or cycle more than you’d want to, you’ll find new spots every day, and you’ll get lost. A lot. But once you’re there for a while and get into your routine, the place starts to shrink. Even cities like New York or Tokyo start feeling like towns if you’re there long enough, Euronat isn’t any different.

In the end, the big numbers, the kilometres and hectares are impressive on paper, but they’re not the point. What’s more important is the opportunities they create. Euronat is a place for everybody, and no matter how you like to spend your vacations, it’s unlikely that you’ll get bored after a few days.