What does utopia look like for naturists?
Ask naturists about their ideal world, and many will quickly reply that it’s one where clothes don’t exist. We kinda agree with this, albeit more for the fact that this would also mean that there would be nice warm temperatures year-round. If not, a clothes-free world would rather seem like a living hell.
A more reasonable alternative might be a world in which the clothed and the nude can live happily together. Where everyone can dress or undress as they wish without shame or judgment. Where the nude body isn’t overly sexualised and where you don’t have to fear that you’ll end up on a porn site when someone points a phone in your direction. All we would need for this to happen is a small shift in human mentality. But we’re afraid that this won’t be much easier than creating a shift in meteorological conditions.
What do we REALLY want?
In fact, there are places in the world where the weather is so favourable that you can literally be naked 24/7, 365 days a year. New Cambium on the Dominican Republic, for example. This spot has been carefully picked out by someone who had a skin condition and found wearing clothes physically painful. If you’re dreaming of a place to live without clothes, it won’t get much better than this. But yet, we haven’t seen the worldwide naturist community sell their homes and leave their jobs to start a new life in the Dominican Republic.
Similarly, there are places where the nude and the clothed manage to live together. Vera Playa in Spain is a town with a naturist zone, where it’s not unlikely to see people walking their dogs in the nude, going for a naked evening stroll, or having a beer at a terrace while working on their full tan. This is not a fenced-off resort or gated community, there aren’t even signs telling you where the naked zone starts or ends. It’s just there.
Where to go nude in Vera Playa
When we first visited Vera Playa, we figured that this would be the perfect opportunity to get an idea of what life without clothes would look like. We had been to the massive naturist resorts in France before, some of which are much larger than Vera Playa, where you can also find bars, restaurants, shops and all kinds of facilities that a mid-sized town has. But it’s not the same, because you know that there’s a fence between yourself and the outside world. There’s a fee to be paid and security to be passed. Which is not the case at Vera Playa.
We wanted to experience what it’s like to walk the streets naked, without the risk of shocking anyone or being called an exhibitionist. But what we quickly realised is that not everyone felt the same. Even on a sunny afternoon, when we headed towards Hotel Street, where most of the bars and restaurants are, we often found ourselves naked among the clothed. Nobody looked shocked, nobody called us names, nobody seemed to care at all, yet we couldn’t help but feel a certain level of discomfort.
Nude when comfortable
There is that old naturist mantra saying “Nude when possible, clothed when necessary”. But in this town, where clothes are definitely not a necessity, quite some people do prefer to pick that option. The reason: comfort.
Some of the bars and restaurants in Hotel Street, and all the shops, require that you cover up. Those are why the people in the street are here. They could have prepared a bag with clothes to put on in front of the door, but that’s not really comfortable, is it?
On the other hand, in the streets going towards the beach, we found that most people were naked. Not having to put on clothes for that short walk from the car or your apartment to the beach, now that is comfortable.
In our experience, most visitors to Vera Playa weren’t looking for a place to be naked as much as possible, they wanted to have the choice. And that’s where it becomes difficult.
Different levels of comfort
A comment we regularly hear about large naturist places is that there are always people clothed. That’s because different people have different comfort levels. Some like sunbathing naked on the beach, but wouldn’t find it comfortable to play volleyball without clothes. Others love to have a nude swim in the pool but find it more comfortable to dress up for dinner. The larger the place, the more different levels of comfort you will find.
The big cherry on the cake of discomfort is being nude among the clothed. We believe that every naturist has a “social nude ratio”. Some will only feel comfortable being naked if everyone else is too. Others can handle a 20% or 30% clothed, or maybe even a 50/50. And few couldn’t care less about being naked when everyone else is covered up. This sometimes creates a snowball effect. We’ve talked to people who didn’t really want to get dressed for dinner, but just did because they knew they would be among the very few nudes in the restaurant.
Will it always remain a utopia?
Can we ever get to a point where everyone feels comfortable, even though we have different levels of comfort and our comfort depends on that of others? The good news is that our levels of comfort tend to change. During our first naked strolls along Hotel Street or the back roads of Vera Playa, we felt like we didn’t belong there. As if we had misunderstood the theme of a costume party.
But the longer we stayed, the less we started to care. Even though most others were clothed, we felt that there was nothing wrong with us being nude. Our social nude ratio has changed along the way, as it has done many times before, since we’ve taken our first steps into naturism and even found it awkward to be nude among the nudes. And when it still does reach the point of discomfort, we know that it’s perfectly fine to cover up.
In the end, comfort is not a fixed destination, it’s a journey that shifts with experience, environment, and mindset. The next time you find yourself in a mixed environment, whether clothed among the nude or nude among the clothed, remember that comfort is not just personal, it’s communal. And that community grows stronger when we respect everyone’s journey toward their own comfort zone.
Support Naked Wanderings
Do you like what we do for naturism and naturists?
Did we make you laugh or cry?
Did we help you find the information you were looking for?
Then definitely join our Patreon community!
“we often found ourselves naked among the clothed. Nobody looked shocked, nobody called us names, nobody seemed to care at all, yet we couldn’t help but feel a certain level of discomfort”
I wouldn’t be surprised if that discomfort wore off after only a few occasions. If it doesn’t shock or offend anyone, why imagine reasons to feel uncomfortable? I learned a long time ago to be comfortable naked, whether with hundreds of others or all by myself among textiles.
True, this is something you can get used to over time.
“Can we ever get to a point where everyone feels comfortable”.
We probably will.
The western society is finally comfortable *enough* with women without scarf, women in trousers, men earrings, miniskirts, colorful hair, bathing suits, bikinis and topless. All of these styles were not long ago considered bad taste, sexually or otherwise provocative, dangerous for society and penalized. And they still are in many places of the world, legacy rules have their momentum.
No reason why it would be different for naturists or “comfortalists”.
That’s what I try to tell some people. About 100 years ago in the U.S. it was illegal for men to be topless in public, even at the beach. Now no one cares if a man is topless at the beach or out for a jog.
I dont really agree unless when u say western u ment USA?
Hi aci, by “western” I mostly meant “Europe”.
My grand granny when she was young would never leave home without a scarf. If she did, she would not be beaten to death like this girl in Iran, but she could face some unpleasant “corrective actions” from her local community. It was in Europe and not in the Middle East.
A man wearing earrings or colorful hair was once considered an “antisocial element” and could very likely spend few days in a preventive custody with corrective actions executed by the police themselves. Europe again, less than 70 years back.
Less than 15 years ago a girl was fined by the police for being topless on a public beach. She appealed to the court and she won. The official verdict was that her apperance was normal and not offensive.
Things are improving, just not as fast as we would like.
hi zibi,
where are u exactly from?? i have never heard of any of these , contrary, i would say lots of things are less tolerated now ,compared to b4 , the only reason why it might not look like that is internet and soc media, so u have the fake impression just cause its in ur face now and u dont have to hustle somwhat for it
Those above are real examples from the eastern part of EU. Reportedly more laxed than its western counterpart.
I am not saying there is a linear progress. More a sinusoid with a slightly positive long term trend.
What do you see is worse now than “before” ?
That is so very true! Sometimes we need to look back in time to realise how far we’ve come in just a very short period
This was a very good posting. I liked that you answered questions that were on people’s minds. That sounds like a very interesting place with healthy attitudes. I really liked that you gave so much practical information. Again…very good!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Vera Playa is definitely on my list of places to visit. After modeling nude for art classes for 40 years, I am one of those few who are perfectly happy being the only nude person in a group of clothed people. I try to be the trendsetter. I saw a meme recently of a nude girl surrounded by clothed people with the caption, “Be the reason it’s clothing optional.” I’ve taken that to heart. I recently went to a festival which allowed nudity, but I was the only naked person in the common areas. But as the festival continued, I noticed more and more people openly nude at their campsites. I like to think that I inspired that.
Hi Dan, what kind of festival was that ? music or something?
It’s very important to try to be the example and we totally get the satisfaction when others follow your lead. Many people just don’t like to be the first but truly wish someone else will be so they can follow
Woa this was a great blog!
I think u were wierded out but that walk in that video on YT is prolly as u said , its an open “village” not a gated camp or colony ,so that fact made it feel strange + if u guys saw many clothed ppl ,wich is to me strange considering where the place is. But its really hard for me to have a good view of that as i wasnt ever there or anything similar..
Tho about the question it self, i think the start kinda says it why its like that .. just think about it.. if there is such place as where u guys were in the video, really..why isnt every1 from the planet that loves nudity go there to live, and be nude forever or like 360/365 days?? Thats really a great question ,and its not like it couldnt be done actually. But yet its not done.
The other one goes to the sexual porn thing websites .. the only reason why ppl are “afraid” of that cause they are afraid of porn it self.. imagine if it wasnt off limits (same way nudies want nudism not to be) ,if you would normalize that, no1 would ever really care about porn anymore (way less then today)..you think im wrong? .. hear me out.. when i was a kid (i think u know guys where im from from those emailchats few years ago,former yugoslavia) , back then we had just a few channels on tv , domestic ones, and ya TV was wow, lots of sports or tv shows …games without borders (loved that) .. but still only 3-4 channels..u had to wait for a tv show a week, ect get the point.. now?? now we/i have 500 channels 100 football games every week (used to go to games for 30 years) ..now i dont go to games nor i watch nor i watch TV at all.. Simply u just get sick of it and its like naaa..so,u kinda get the point..id type more but its long enough lol.
One very important thing to remember is that there’s no such thing as “the naturist”. We often say that there are as many types of naturism as there are naturists. It all depends on personal choices and it all has to do with where they find it comfortable/practical to be naked. Definitely not every naturist aims to be nude 24/7. In large places like Vera Playa, you’ll find a mix of all. Some will be walking the streets nude just because they can, others just want to be naked on the beach and will remain dressed getting there. As people who only prefer to be nude in certain settings are the biggest group, it’s not surprising to see a lot of clothed people in a naked village.
We don’t agree with the comparison to porn. Several studies have shown that people do get used to porn, but instead of losing interest they will start searching for extremes. Porn websites prove this theory. If you’d compare “magazine porn” from pre-internet times to what you can find online these days, you’ll find that “magazine porn” is much less extreme.
Following the title of this blog post, the comfort of walking naked in open public spaces is subjective, but worth experiencing. In addition to Charco del Palo and the Vera developments, the village of El Fonoll in Catalonia, Spain, offers the opportunity to stroll through a small, reconstructed village with accommodation options and beautiful trails through forests and fields. The naturist developments of Leucata in Occitania, France, are another constructed space where you can stroll, shop, dine, and enjoy its magnificent beach without costumes.
These spaces bring us closer to the utopia of a world where nudity, socially respected, is simply another way of life, without having to experience it in restricted spaces, whether public or private. Just as it was dreamed and built in the first half of the 20th century at the Domaine Naturiste d’Héliopolis, L’île du Levant, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, France. Perhaps naturism represents comfort, freedom, and respect.