Europe is where naturism began and where it is easiest to practice. Germany, France, Spain, Croatia and the Netherlands have hundreds of designated naturist beaches, the law in most of these countries punishes only sexual or deliberately offensive exposure, and a sign reading FKK, naturiste or nudista means what it says. These are the beaches long-time naturists send their friends to, with the legal status of each country and the changes that have happened recently.
France: Cap d'Agde and the Atlantic coast
French law (Code pénal article 222-32) punishes "sexual exhibition" imposed on others in a public place with up to a year's imprisonment and a 15,000 euro fine, and a 1993 ministerial circular rules out prosecuting naturism in places designated for it. Beaches are designated by municipal decree, so a plage naturiste is lawful and the beach next to it is not.
Cap d'Agde, on the Mediterranean in Hérault, is the largest naturist resort in the world. Brothers René and Paul Oltra opened a naturist campsite on the family vineyard in the mid-1950s, the state's 1960s coastal development plan turned it into the Village Naturiste, and the beach was officially designated naturist in 1973. The beach is about two kilometers long, the village holds tens of thousands at peak, and nudity is obligatory on the sand. The village also has a swinger quarter with clubs and shops, which is why serious naturists choose the family campsite and the quieter ends of the beach; the two scenes coexist under strict rules on consent and cameras. On the Atlantic coast, Euronat (opened 1975, 335 hectares, the largest naturist center in Europe) and CHM Montalivet (1950, the world's first naturist holiday center and the place where the International Naturist Federation was founded in 1953) are the places to go for dunes, pine forest and families. Browse naturist beaches and resorts in France.
Spain: Es Trenc, Formentera and Vera Playa
Spain is the most tolerant country in Europe on paper: public nudity is not an offense under national law, and regulation is left to town halls, most of which do nothing. The exceptions are urban beaches; Palma has fined tourists 750 euros for nudity on Playa de Palma, and the unwritten rule everywhere is that you do not undress on a city beach.
Es Trenc, on Mallorca's south coast, is the island's best-known naturist beach, a long natural strand backed by dunes where nudity is accepted along most of its length and concentrated away from the car parks. On Formentera, naturism is simply normal: the north end of Ses Illetes and the whole of Platja de Llevant are the main naturist areas, the center of Platja de Migjorn is nudist, and the sandy spit of Es Trucadors beyond them is naturist by default. Not all of these are officially designated; they are tolerated and have been for decades. Vera Playa, in Almería on the mainland's southeast coast, is Spain's naturist capital: about two kilometers of beach reserved for naturists and a cluster of naturist apartment complexes (Natsun, Vera Natura and others) that have grown since 1990 into the largest naturist residential zone in the country. Browse Spain.
Germany: Sylt and Rügen
Germany invented FKK and still treats it as ordinary. Nudity is not a crime; outside a marked FKK area it can be a minor infraction if someone complains, and in practice nobody does at a lake or a Baltic beach. Sylt, the North Sea island off Schleswig-Holstein, opened Germany's first official nude beach at Kampen in 1920, and the Kampen FKK beach at Buhne 16 is still the most famous on the island, with marked naturist stretches toward the northern end as well. Rügen, Germany's largest island on the Baltic, has several marked FKK beaches along its eastern coast, a legacy of East German summers when naturism was the beach norm; check the listing for the current marked sections. Browse Germany, and read our history of naturism for why Germany is where it started.
Croatia: Koversada and Valalta
Yugoslavia built naturist tourism before most of Europe. Koversada, outside Vrsar in Istria, opened in 1961 on an agreement to bring German naturists to the coast and grew to hold 10,000 people at its peak. In 2025 it was converted into a mainly textile campsite, "Koversada Covered," with only a small naturist section remaining, so do not book it on reputation. Valalta, at the mouth of the Lim bay seven kilometers from Rovinj, opened at the end of the 1960s and remains exclusively naturist, with 4.2 kilometers of coast, a marina and a campsite that is one of the largest naturist sites in Europe. Croatia's coast has dozens of smaller FKK beaches marked on local maps.
Greece: Red Beach, Crete
Greece has no officially designated nude beaches and nudity is technically unlawful, but it is tolerated on remote beaches where it does not confront anyone. Red Beach (Kokkini Ammos), reached by a steep twenty to forty minute hike over the headland south of Matala in southern Crete or by summer taxi boat, has been a naturist beach since the hippie era, with the nude and textile sections separated by rocks. Wear real shoes for the trail.
United Kingdom: Studland
English law criminalizes exposure under section 66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 only when the person intends someone to see and be alarmed or distressed, so naturism on a beach is not an offense in itself. Studland, on Dorset's Jurassic Coast, is the country's best-known naturist beach: nearly a kilometer of Knoll Beach marked with green-topped posts, owned by the National Trust, patrolled by rangers and police, with naturism there dating to the 1920s. The Trust's rules are the standard British ones: clothed outside the posts, no cameras or drones, no fires, and anything suspicious on the sand left alone because wartime ordnance still surfaces. Browse the United Kingdom.
Reading a European beach
- Designated beats tolerated. A municipal sign, a federation listing or a national trust boundary is legal protection. A reputation is not.
- Nudity is expected on a naturist beach. In France and Germany a swimsuit on the naturist section draws comment; the etiquette guide explains why.
- Families are the norm. European naturist beaches are family beaches first, and behavior is judged accordingly.
- Cameras are the one offense everyone enforces. Studland confiscates equipment; Cap d'Agde posts the rule on the beach.
For a naturist holiday rather than a beach day, our nakation guide covers resorts, apartments and cruises. Members who live near each of these beaches list them on their profiles; browse members by country, and use the directory for the beaches not named here.