Naturist holidays in Spain and the Canaries: resorts, beaches and law

Spain is the easiest country in Europe for a naturist holiday: nudity on beaches is legal by default, the Mediterranean and Canary coasts have purpose-built naturist resorts that have operated for forty years, and the Canaries give you a nude beach in January. The only things to understand are where local bylaws apply and which resorts are fully naturist rather than merely tolerant.

The law, briefly

Spain decriminalized public nudity when the old offense of public indecency (escándalo público) was removed from the Penal Code in the late 1980s, and a 1988 change to the Coastal Act took away the role councils had in policing beach morality. What remains is Article 185 of the Penal Code, which covers sexual exhibitionism in front of minors; simple nudity does not come near it. The Spanish Naturist Federation's position, which Spanish courts have broadly accepted, is that nudity is lawful anywhere unless a municipality specifically restricts it by ordinance.

Municipalities can and sometimes do. Barcelona's 2011 civic bylaw limits nudity on its city beaches to the designated naturist stretch at Mar Bella. Cádiz banned nudity on its urban beaches, lost a long court fight brought by the naturist federation when the Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2016, and later relaxed it. On Lanzarote, the municipality of Teguise passed a 2016 bylaw restricting nudity that could in theory affect part of Charco del Palo but has not been reported enforced. The practical rule: on any beach outside a city, and on any signposted naturist beach, you are fine; in a town, look for the signs or check the Spain listings.

Vera Playa, Almería

Vera Playa, on the coast of Almería province in eastern Andalusia, is the largest naturist zone in Spain. It grew from a single complex into a naturist urbanization in the 1990s, and today has roughly two kilometers of naturist beach with apartment complexes such as Natsun, Vera Natura and Bahía de Vera where nudity is permitted throughout the grounds, plus a naturist hotel and a campsite. In 2013 the local naturist association set a Guinness record there for the largest skinny dip, with 729 people. It is a resort town, not a wild beach: supermarkets, restaurants and a promenade where clothing is normal, and apartment pools where it is not. The beach is a short walk from everything, the sea is warm from June to October, and it is the best choice in Spain for a first naturist holiday with children or a nervous partner, because the whole environment is built for it.

Costa Natura, Estepona

Costa Natura, just west of Estepona on the Costa del Sol, opened in 1979 and describes itself as Spain's first naturist tourist complex. It is a small, gated, Andalusian-style village of apartments around pools and gardens, with its own stretch of beach of about 850 meters, a restaurant and a bar, and nudity throughout. It is quieter and older in feel than Vera Playa, half an hour from Marbella and an hour from Málaga airport, and suits couples who want a naturist base with the Costa del Sol outside the gate.

Charco del Palo, Lanzarote

Charco del Palo is a naturist village on the northeast coast of Lanzarote, built from around 1970 by a German developer and still mostly visited by Germans, British and Dutch. It is reached by its own three-kilometer access road, which gives it privacy, and it consists of low-rise bungalows and apartments around natural rock pools (charcos) cut into the volcanic shore, with no sand beach. Nudity is the norm throughout the village streets and pools; some complexes ask that you dress for the supermarket and restaurant, so read the house rules. There is nothing to do except swim, walk and sit in the sun, which is why people go back every winter.

The Maspalomas dunes, Gran Canaria

Maspalomas, at the southern tip of Gran Canaria, has a long sand beach running from Playa del Inglés to the lighthouse, backed by a protected dune reserve. The central stretch of beach is a signposted naturist zone, generally reckoned to run between the beach kiosks numbered 3 to 6 (sources and signs differ slightly at the edges; follow the signs). Clothing is required at the family ends near Playa del Inglés and the lighthouse. The dunes behind are a nature reserve, and the reserve's own guidance asks visitors not to use the dunes for naturism; stay on the beach. This is a resort beach with sunbeds, kiosks and lifeguards on the clothed sections, within walking distance of thousands of hotel rooms, and the nearest thing Europe has to a year-round nude city beach.

Formentera and Mallorca

The Balearics have no built naturist resorts but plenty of naturist beaches. On Formentera, Platja de Ses Illetes is clothing-optional with nudity concentrated toward its northern tip, and Platja de Migjorn on the south coast has long stretches where nudity is normal. On Mallorca, Es Trenc near Campos is the big one, a long white beach whose eastern section is designated naturist, with smaller nude coves at El Mago, Bella Dona and Es Caló des Monjo in the Calvià area. These are beach-day destinations rather than naturist holidays: you stay in a normal hotel and drive to the beach, which the directory lists with parking notes.

Picking the right one

Practical notes

• INF cards. Some apartment complexes and campsites ask for one; most sell a temporary card for a few euros. Our guide to naturist organizations explains how to get one through AANR or TNS before you fly.
• Families are normal. Spanish and northern European families holiday at all of these. The Canaries skew older in winter.
• Cameras. Resort rules ban photography of other guests, and on beaches the etiquette guide applies: nobody else in frame.
• Sun. Andalusia in August and the Canaries at any time of year will burn skin that has never been exposed. Shade in the middle of the day.
• Meet people first. The member directory has Spanish and expat members at Vera and in the Canaries, and the groups for Spain and the Canaries carry meetups through the winter season.