Naturist camping means sleeping outdoors somewhere nudity is allowed: a private clothing-optional campground or RV park, a naturist holiday center in Europe, or, with care, public land where no rule prohibits it. The private campground is where almost everyone starts, because the rules are known, the showers are hot and nobody will knock on your tent with a citation book.
Clothing-optional campgrounds in the United States
Most American nudist resorts began as campgrounds and still are. Cypress Cove in Florida, Oaklake Trails in Oklahoma (over 400 acres, ten miles of trails, nudity required at the pools, hot tub and sauna), Laguna del Sol near Sacramento, Dyer Woods in Rhode Island and dozens more sell tent and RV sites by the night alongside cabins and day passes. Quartzsite, Arizona has the Magic Circle, a 450 acre stretch of desert used by nudist RVers every winter without any formal status. The camping directory lists the campgrounds by state, with hookups, tent areas and the adult or family policy on each listing.
Fees run from about $30 to $70 a night for a site plus the grounds fee for non-members, which is why people who camp more than a few weekends a year join the club. AANR affiliation on a listing means the campground follows the association's conduct standards and gives AANR members a discount; the association's clubs have run the same camping circuit since the 1930s. Our first resort visit guide covers the gate, the tour and the towel rule, all of which apply at the campground too.
Naturist holiday centers in Europe
France invented the naturist campsite as a destination. CHM Montalivet, on the Atlantic coast north of Bordeaux, opened in 1950 as the world's first naturist holiday center and hosted the founding of the International Naturist Federation in 1953; Euronat, a few kilometers north, opened in 1975 on 335 hectares of pine forest and is the largest in Europe. Both are small towns in summer, with pitches, chalets, shops, pools and a long naturist beach, and nudity is the norm throughout rather than optional. Cap d'Agde's naturist campsite is the Mediterranean equivalent. Croatia's Valalta near Rovinj is a naturist-only campsite with 4.2 kilometers of coast; Koversada, once the largest, became a mostly textile campsite in 2025. Most European centers require a naturist federation card or sell a temporary one at reception, and most book out for July and August by spring. Browse France, Spain and Germany, and read our European beach guide for the beaches they sit on.
Public land in the United States
There is no federal law against nudity, but public land is not a free zone.
- National forests. The Forest Service regulates by forest order. Under 36 CFR 261.58(j) a forest supervisor may prohibit "being publicly nude," and many have: Sequoia, Allegheny, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache and the North Carolina forests among them, with penalties up to $5,000 and six months. Where no order exists, state and county law applies. Orders are posted on each forest's "alerts and notices" page; read them before you go.
- Dispersed camping. Outside developed campgrounds, most national forests allow free dispersed camping for a limited stay, commonly 14 days, at least a short distance from water and roads; the limits vary by forest. Dispersed sites well off the road are where discreet naturist camping actually happens, and discretion is the whole point: out of sight of trails, dressed when anyone approaches.
- BLM land. The Bureau of Land Management has no general nudity rule; state and county law applies. Dispersed camping limits are similar to the forests.
- National parks and seashores. The Park Service bans nudity by regulation at Cape Cod National Seashore and can cite it as disorderly conduct anywhere else. Do not camp nude in a national park.
Our guide to US nudity law explains how state statutes work; on public land, the state you are standing in decides whether an unordered forest is lawful or not.
Campground etiquette versus beach etiquette
The beach rules all apply, but a campground is a neighborhood rather than a strand, and that changes a few things.
- Your site is your home, their site is theirs. Do not walk through other people's pitches, and ask before you sit at someone's fire.
- Quiet hours are real. Most nudist campgrounds are quieter than textile ones. Generators and music have posted hours.
- Dress code by area. Nude is usually required at the pool, optional on the grounds, and often requested in the restaurant and camp store. The listing or the office will tell you.
- Towel on everything. Picnic tables, chairs, the laundry bench, the golf cart.
- Cover up at dusk and for cooking. Bare skin, a campfire and a frying pan do not mix. An apron is not a joke at a nudist campground; it is standard kit.
- No cameras in common areas. A photo of your own tent is fine; a photo with anyone else in frame is not.
What to bring
- Three or four towels: one to sit on, one to dry with, one for the pool, one spare.
- Sandals you can wear all day and water shoes for lake shores.
- A sarong, robe or long shirt for the evening chill and the walk to the camp store.
- Sunscreen for parts of you that have never seen the sun, and a hat.
- Insect repellent that is safe on bare skin; test it at home.
- A camp chair with its own towel, and a tablecloth for the picnic table.
- Cash for the gate, firewood and ice. Many rural clubs do not take cards.
- Your AANR, TNS or federation card if you have one; it is usually worth a discount.
Choosing a campground
Read the listing for the three things that vary most: whether tents are welcome or it is RV-only, whether it is family or adults-only, and whether a first visit requires an orientation or a background check. Then ask the people who have been. Members near you list their home campground on their profiles, the groups organize camping weekends that fill a campground with people you have already met, and the camping directory is where the current season's rates and closures are kept.