How Nude will You Go?

After publishing our Destination Clothes Free video about Euronat a few weeks ago, we received quite a lot of messages, questions, and complaints about the nude/non-nude ratio at the resort. This didn’t really come as a surprise. If you read the reviews about Euronat, the topic of the (semi-)covered guest pops up quite a lot.

It’s not just the case for Euronat, by the way. If you wander around any other clothes-free resort that hosts a few thousand guests, you’re likely to see many different states of dress and undress. In the past, we’ve often written this off as a consequence of the never-ending stream of people coming and going. But along the way, we realised that there’s another, much more interesting reason for this.

Of course, at a place like Euronat, that accommodates up to twelve thousand people per day, there will always be some for whom it wasn’t exactly the vacation they had dreamed of. Some don’t like the food, the prices, the entertainment, or the fact that you need to make reservations at the restaurants. But the complaints we’re talking about are different, they are about the very core of the resort: Nudity.

We started searching for similar cases in other niches, and quickly came up with the concept of music festivals. Most large festivals you find today, think of Coachella, Glastonbury or Roskilde, all used to have lineups completely filled with rock bands. During the last decade or so, many of them started experimenting with adding pop genres. Suddenly, Biebs was headlining, or Rihanna or even Taylor Swift. Needless to say, long-time visitors were not exactly amused.

The reason why these festivals did this was that they realised that if they wanted to keep selling out hundreds of thousands of tickets every year, they somehow needed to reach a wider audience. Large naturist domains feel the same. Times are changing, and while traditional naturist clubs based on volunteers and strict nudity policies seem to be declining, more and more people are enjoying different forms of social nudity. If the large resorts want to sustain, just like music festivals, they need to adjust to the current needs.

Just like how today’s visitors to music festivals can be divided into different categories, depending on which genre(s) they prefer, the same can be done with naturists. During our years of travelling, this often became very clear.

First there are the Beach Naturists. These are the people you typically find at nude beaches and who rarely, often never, will be found at a naturist resort. They just like to be naked on the beach. A bit of sunbathing and a skinny dip is basically all they prefer to do.

Then there are the No-Bathing Suit-Naturists. These are the people who realised that bathing suits come with nothing but disadvantages, so they replace the bathing suit with… well… no bathing suit. Swimming, sunbathing, sauna, relaxing in the garden, all the stuff other people usually do in a bathing suit, they do naked. But for sports, dining, or shopping, they prefer to put something on.

The Comfortable Naturist is similar to the previous, but takes it one step further by considering all clothes unnecessary if nudity provides more comfort. These are the people you’ll also see doing naked sports, because clothes might restrict your movement. Or you’ll find them dining naked on warm summer evenings because clothes are just too hot. But when they arrive at a naturist resort, and they know they’ll be heading into town after they got installed, they probably won’t get naked just to set up their tent. Because they don’t see the use of undressing and fifteen minutes later getting dressed again.

On the far end of the spectrum is, of course, the 24/7 Naturist. Also often called the Die-Hard Naturist. Rumour has it that they install a wardrobe next to their front door, because every second they are dressed when they don’t necessarily need to is one too many. They are as nude as possible, as much as possible.

A few days ago, we were at a naturist campsite in Denmark. A country, which we learned, has warm summer days but very chilly mornings and evenings. Here, it was super easy to pick the 24/7 naturists. They would still be naked an hour and a half after we had put on long trousers and a sweater.

Then there’s also the Social Naturist, who only gets naked in social settings, and their counterpart the Home Naturist, who doesn’t get naked in social settings. And there are quite a few other categories and subcategories that we won’t mention, or this list just keeps going on forever. But you get the point, right? Many different people, all naturists, but experiencing it in many different ways.

Another interesting type to have a closer look at is the Vacation Naturist. These are the ones who will only get naked while on vacation. They don’t go to a local club, they don’t go to the spa, they even aren’t much naked at home. But when on holiday, they go full monty.

We started as vacation naturists. For quite a few years, we went on holiday to naturist campsites or weekends away to a naked spa, but not much in between. From there, we slowly moved into the Comfortable Naturist category, and we’re probably still there. Plenty of you might recognise this process. Many start on the nude beach and later discover other types of naturism.

This is not a complete process you have to go through from A to Z. When you started, you probably didn’t know all the options, and it’s totally fine to stop wherever you found a place that suits you.

While you were reading through the above list, maybe you immediately spotted which type describes you completely. Or maybe none of them felt like a match. Maybe you’re just picking elements from all types and making your own. We have actually met several people who are into naked yoga, a rather exposed activity, but don’t feel anything for being naked on the beach. That’s totally possible, and that’s totally fine.

Now look at all these individuals and picture them in one big place, like Euronat, for example. There will be the 24/7s who you’ll never spot with a single piece of textile, the Comfies playing naked volleyball, the No-Bathies wrapped in a sarong on their way to the pool and the Beachies in shorts and dresses with a filled cooler walking towards the beach.

They are all there for the same reason, and yet, it somehow feels confusing. But what you’re actually looking at isn’t a resort that’s losing its naturist identity. It’s a resort where many different types of naturists happen to be sharing the same pathway at the same moment.

Large resorts need to do this to guarantee a continuous stream of visitors, just like large music festivals need to cater to rockers, ravers, and swifties. Smaller places can focus more on one style. And maybe that’s the most useful takeaway from all of this. The question is never “are these people naturist enough”. The question is which type of naturist you are, and which place is built for that.