Find Your Perfect Beach Getaway

The history of nude beaches begins with Germany's FKK movement, which opened the first official nude beach on Sylt in 1920, then spread to France, Croatia and the US.

Nude beach safety is mostly sunburn and chafing prevention: reef-safe SPF 50 reapplied every two hours, an anti-chafe balm, water shoes, and the rip-current and stingray basics.

Pack a large towel, a sarong for transition zones, reef-safe mineral sunscreen (required by law in Hawaii and Palau), a dry bag for your phone, water shoes, cash, and after-sun.

Never photograph anyone at a nude beach without explicit consent, and expect cameras and phones to be banned at private naturist resorts entirely. Here is what US and UK law allows.

Nude beach legality varies by country: broadly legal in Spain, Germany and France, allowed only on designated beaches in Australia and the US, and a jailable offence in the UAE.

Vietnam has no nude beaches — every coast is textile under Decree 144/2021. Its one real naturist tradition is Hanoi's inland Banana Island; Thailand and Bali are the alternatives.

Venezuela has no official nude beaches. Public nudity is prosecutable under its Penal Code, the "clothing-optional" spots online are informal and unverified, and travel warnings are severe.

Vanuatu has no nude beaches and public nudity is illegal under the Penal Code. This 93% Christian, kastom-rooted archipelago has no clothing-optional coast; the nearest real option is New Caledonia.

Uruguay has two official nude beaches: Playa Chihuahua near Punta del Este and La Sirena in Rocha. Both are legal and government-designated; nudity is banned everywhere else.

The US Virgin Islands have no legal nude beaches: public nudity is banned under VI Code Title 14 and Salomon Bay on St. John is now textile. Real naturism is a short flight east in Saint Martin.

Tonga's beaches are strictly textile under a deeply Christian culture where the Sabbath is constitutionally sacred. French Polynesia's private motus and Australia's designated beaches are the alternatives.

Thailand's informal naturist tradition holds at remote southern coves — Haad Yuan, Koh Adang, Freedom Beach. The main resort beaches are uniformly textile.