Topless in Tahiti… Yes, but don’t even think of sunbathing nude.

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This time last year, my wife and I went to one of our favorite nude resorts, Hidden Beach Resort  in Mexico. It’s an amazing place. Truly a five-star experience and one  we look forward to going back to again and again. I’ll share more about why HBR is one of our favorites in a later blog post.

While I’m sure we would have loved going to HBR on our honeymoon nearly 20 years ago, there is no way my wife or I would have been ready for an upscale, nude not clothing optional, resort experience. When we were there last we met a couple in their late 20s. The staff told them they were the youngest couple to ever stay there. While it could be the cost (HBR isn’t cheap), generally most of the couples we’ve met there are 45+ years. Personally, I don’t believe we would have been mature enough to enjoy it.

For us, our first nude or semi-nude vacation was our honeymoon to Tahiti. It was an amazing trip and kicked off our marriage. It was where my wife became truly comfortable with laying out, walking, swimming, canoeing, eating and talking to others without her bikini top on. It was a liberating experience for her and honestly taught me a lot about the unwritten language that can occur when a large group of women want to, but are uncomfortable to try something new like sunbathing topless.

First off, we decided to honeymoon in Tahiti because it was a place we wouldn’t be back to any time soon and because it was a tropical setting. We wanted to lay out, swim with the fish, enjoy romantic dinners and each other.  We did not choose to go there because the beaches are topless.

So where is Tahiti? It’s a long flight to literally the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Tahiti is actually the largest island and part of French Polynesia, which has more than 300 islands. If you want a truly tropical island experience with great food and incredible beaches and sea life, this is the place. It’s also un-Godly expensive but we’d love to go back if we could.

We spent ten days in French Polynesia (stay a minimum of two weeks) and went to three different islands. Our favorite was Bora Bora. We swam with sharks, ate great food, paddled around the lagoons, snorkeled with hundreds if not thousands of fish and relaxed on the beach every day. As you can imagine, it was very romantic.

When we arrived at our first hotel, we were exhausted, jet lagged and ready to collapse. We were enjoying a quick lunch when we saw another American couple who had arrived with us. They had reserved an over-water bungalow with steps to the water. They were getting into a canoe to explore the lagoon. As we watched them circle a dock and began to discuss how much we wanted to do the same, the woman stopped paddling, reached behind her back and untied her bikini and pulled it off. From that moment on, we knew this was going to be a very different trip for us.

French Polynesia was a perfect introduction for my wife to feel confident and enjoy being topless around other people. We had gone to Black’s Beach in San Diego earlier in the year but we had found a secluded space, away from everyone else. Here we were surrounded by other couples.

After finishing lunch we went to our bungalow and put on our swimsuits. I teased my wife about leaving her bikini top in the room. She told me I’d have to wait and see. We weren’t on the beach more than 10 minutes before she took over her top. I could tell she was uncomfortable and initially covered up whenever a waiter came by to ask us if we wanted a drink. But that didn’t last long. By the end of the day she was walking, swimming and even canoeing topfree.

My wife has wonderful olive colored skin that gets very dark as she tans. I honestly wasn’t sure which I liked best, her dark-tanned breasts or her glowing white tan lines from her bikini bottoms. After a week of laying out and sunbathing topless I thought she would be totally comfortable being topless anywhere. I was wrong.

Our final island was Moorea. It’s very close to the island of Tahiti where the international airport is and most tourists either begin or end their trip here. When we arrived at the Sofitel resort in the early afternoon, we quickly changed and went out onto the beach and discovered we were surrounded by young, honeymooning American couples. All were proudly wearing new wedding bands and each young lady wore a small bikini in a variety of colors. While there were topless French women here and there and lovely French Polynesian women barely  even wearing a small thong, all of the American women were covered up… including my wife. Having grown used to her being topless all day, I was disappointed when she didn’t take her top off. She explained to me  she was completely uncomfortable showing her breasts in front of all of these other women. I was surprised but I understood. She wore her bikini top all day. The first time in nearly two weeks.

The next morning we arrived at the beach early. Our vacation was nearly over and we wanted to catch every ray of sun before heading back to Ohio. I asked her if she would go topless while the beach was still open and vacant. She took off her bikini top and settled into a good book, which quickly put her to sleep. I was surprised by what happened next.

The chairs around us slowly filled with the same couples we had seen the day before but one by one, each young lady looked at my wife and then shed her bikini top. Based on the nervous excitement between each woman and her husband and their glowing white breasts, I’m guessing this was a first for most of them. By the time my wife woke, she was surprised to see everyone around her was topless too.

During our many trips to nude beaches and clothing optional resorts, I’ve noticed it sometimes takes one woman to remove her top or swimming suit before all of the others follow. This makes perfect sense to me. Who wants to be the first? It’s a risk and if you’re 20 something years old and still learning to accept your body, you don’t want to be first and attract attention.

So with all of those beautiful beaches and women wearing some of the smallest thongs I have ever seen, you would think there would be a few nude beaches. Think again. Full body nudity is actually frowned upon in French Polynesia. Some hotels do allow nude sunbathing on private islands but we discovered not every island is private.

On our third day in French Polynesia, I spoke with one of the resort staff to see where we could sunbath naked. He was funny because he couldn’t understand why we would want to sunbath without our bathing suits especially with my wife already topless. He suggested we canoe to one of the many small islands in the lagoon. We took off on a 10 minute paddle to the closest island. When we pulled our dug out canoe ashore, it looked like paradise. Soft white sand with gentle rolling waves hitting the shore. Lush ferns, moss and coconut trees densely filled the island. This was the nude beach I had always dreamed of enjoying with my young bride. And it was all ours. Or so we thought.

After we took off our bathing suits and pulled out our towels, our lush private island was invaded. French Polynesian men came from the island jungle and around the beach on what we thought was a remote, uninhabited island to tell us in broken French and English to put our bathing suits back on now. Literally surrounded by men yelling at us to cover up, we quickly and embarrassingly pulled our suits on. We laughed about it later in the evening but the last thing we ever wanted to do was offend someone with our nude bodies. Especially when we are tourists in their home.

I’ve read several travel websites since then and all have said that there are a few nude resorts in French Polynesia but you have to search for them. The Polynesian people do not approve of full nudity. It was though a wonderful experience for my wife and me. My wife is very slender and does not have large breasts. While I believe she is stunning, especially when she is naked, she is often embarrassed by her small breasts. Seeing her enjoy herself and be so confident without her top on was wonderful for her and for me. It was also a stepping stone for our next nude travel experience.

UPDATE:

We received several emails asking which hotel we stayed at on Bora Bora. We stayed at the Hotel Sofitel Bora Bora. This hotel was a truly wonderful experience and I would recommend it to anyone, however, it appears the private island in 1997, is now it’s own upscale lodging experience. I could not find anything about nude sunbathing on the island (which you do do in 1997) so I fear you can’t do that on the island anymore.  Does anyone have any updates on nude sunbathing or skinny dipping on one of the islands in French Polynesia?

So why a blog about traveling to naked places?

One of the many delights on the beach.
One of the many delights on the beach.

In 1996, me and my then girlfriend (now wife) first ventured on to a clothing optional beach. We went to Black’s Beach outside of San Diego and for the very first time ever, took off our bathing suits and our inhibitions.  As we marched down the cliff trail from the Torrey Pines parking lot to the sandy beach below, we both wondered why we were making this trip?  Why go against everything our parents had every told us about the importance of covering up, wearing a bathing suit and never revealing too much skin. We were both 25-years old and while we were free spirits, we had never done anything like this before.

So we found our spot on the beach, laid out our towels and looked at each other… it was the moment of truth. I pulled off my t-shirt and then as if in slow motion, pulled down my swim suit and watched it hit the ground. There I was, standing completely naked, outside for the first time in my adult life and feeling more exposed and naked than I had ever felt before. My girlfriend made a nervous laugh and said I was looking a little cold too. My manhood and I were both cold and shy at that moment. It was cold and not your typical sunny and 75-degree California day. While the sun was shining, it was windy and chilly. I no longer had any fears about getting physically excited.

My girlfriend sat down on her towel and then untied her black bikini top and carefully pulled off her bottoms. She folded them up and put them back in her bag. Even naked she is as tidy as ever.

There we were. Naked. Outside. For the first time. Ever. And it wasn’t at all what we thought it would be like. We lasted about an hour before we agreed the cold wind was too much to take, especially when you had only a towel to keep warm. We didn’t see lot of hard, bronzed bodies walking the beach showing perfect bodies that day. The few women I saw reminded me of ex-hippies who while naked and fine with it, looked like blobs of silly putty sitting in the sun. Care free and happy but the men, they were a different story. By far the men were in much better shape and many walked by our sandy outpost to see the two of us with our blinding tan lines. While at first I thought I needed to protect my girlfriend from their wandering eyes, she quickly pointed out that I was the object of their attention. We had found our perfect spot in the sun on the gay section of Black’s Beach.

While far from a perfect day, we both agreed the experience had been thrilling and the feeling of sunshine all over our bodies was amazing. Why had we thought this was wrong? When we had gotten over our sense of fear and anxiety, we found we felt great and that it was an amazing experience for us as a couple. While not sexual, it was intimate. Besides, how could 100 gay, naked men lying in the sun be wrong? We still laugh about it today.

That was nearly 20 years ago. What started as a fun hour or later on an afternoon, has turned into days and weeks for us on vacation and often with all of our clothing stored in carry-on luggage. Finding the perfect nude beach, clothing optional pool, nude resort, or clothing-free B&B has been a wonderful journey for us and we have shared many great times, met wonderful people and have many good memories. Simply put, some of these destinations are wonderful to visit. They’re beautiful settings with surf, sand and great food and drinks.

So again, why a blog about nude travel? When we started visiting clothing optional destinations, there was often very little information to guide us. We literally got hurt many times walking down trails that doubled as mud slides to reach beautiful secluded beaches where we could get an all-over tan with other likeminded people. Since then, the internet has become a treasure trove of information for the closet nudist or want to be skinny dipper but I’m surprised at how often when I’m looking for travel information about a clothing optional destination, all I see is highly sexual images and behavior that is best saved for the bedroom. I honestly don’t want others who are interested in discovering this side of themselves and sharing it with their significant others to be turned off by what they believe happens when swimming suits are set aside. We don’t become crazed wild animals only interested in sex and foreplay on the beach. Not to say that you don’t need to be careful, but that’s where I believe we can help you out so that it’s a positive experience.

From what we’ve seen, most couples discover clothing optional travel when they are in their 40s and beyond. I’m thankful we figured it out in our mid-20s, but we weren’t the norm at all and we really didn’t embrace nude travel till we were into our 30s. We still find we’re often the youngest couple at the resort or on the beach and we’re just into our 40s now.

My vision for this blog is to share our experiences as we got more comfortable with being naked by ourselves and later with others and to tell you about the places we have visited and why we did or didn’t go back. By offering honest information, I hope we can be a resource to others with questions and hopefully give the push another couple might need to try this out and see if it’s for them.

While my wife and I love our time together on vacation and naked, I wouldn’t call us nudists. We live in the midwest in a nice suburb surrounded by friends and family who know nothing about where we travel or why. We are parents and business people. We are active in our community. We are very normal and probably very boring to many people out there. We don’t sit around the house naked or plant trees in our backyard so we can lay out nude on our patio.  We only recently started going to a local nudist club so we could lay out and enjoy the sun and take a cool relaxing dip in the pool when we had some free time. We’re not members. Just visitors. We don’t bring our children. This time is for us to share and I’d like our children to discover how it feels to be naked on their own.

Interested in hearing more or am I boring you already? Well, let me tell you where we’ve gone and where we’ve been naked. The list is long: Tahiti, Cancun, Tulum, St. Martin, Grenada, Palm Springs, San Diego, South Beach, New Orleans, Toronto, and beaches, clubs and skinny dipping spots across North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida.

So what won’t you find here… pictures of naked people. If you want to see what someone looks like naked, you can strip and look in the mirror or go to one of the beaches or spots we recommend. I will however share pictures of beautiful beaches, hotels, resorts and special spots so you can find them and enjoy them too.

We have a lot to share. We will share with you the naked truth about being naked. It’s been a wonderful experience for us. Enjoy the ride. And let us know what questions you have.