Coming Soon!

Still intrigued by the idea of nude cruises, The Emerging Nudist went straight to the source and visited with Nancy Tiemann, owner of Bare Necessities Tour & Travel, the preeminent clothing-optional tour and travel operator. Nancy provides interesting insight into clothing-optional getaways, especially nude cruises, in an upcoming interview that you won't want to miss. Look for it Saturday, May 16.

Nakations

To many, the mention of nude recreation conjures up images of isolated beach scenes or hippie-style gatherings in a secluded, rustic campground or R.V. park tucked away in the woods. While those kinds of offerings do exist the real boom in nude vacations is coming at the high end of the travel industry, as upscale hotels and resorts, and even some luxury cruise lines, have begun to see the economic potential of the clothing optional crowd, particularly with respect to those who want to shed their clothes but not their pampered lifestyles.

The $300-per-person all-inclusive Hidden Beach Resort, a nude-only luxury hotel that opened in 2003 along Mexico’s popular Mayan Riviera, greets guests with Champagne upon arrival. Beach butlers hand out towels and reading materials to guests relaxing in the nude, while they themselves walk around in discreet uniforms of buttoned-down shirts and khaki pants.

Closer to home for US residents is The Terra Cotta Inn, a luxurious yet affordable clothing optional resort and spa located in Palm Springs, CA, with room rates ranging from $149 to $189 per night, double occupancy. The Terra Cotta Inn which pampers and spoils guests with such amenities as al fresco breakfasts, catered lunches, afternoon hors d'oeuvres, spa services and wonderful mountain views, has been named a favorite couples getaway by Los Angeles Magazine and one of the top four resorts in Palm Springs by the San Diego ABC television affiliate. In addition to clothing optional specific resorts like The Terra Cotta Inn, several mainstream hotels, including Caesar’s Palace and the Mirage in Las Vegas, have introduced topless pools in the past couple of years.

In 2008, a New York Times article estimated that nude recreation represented a $440 million a year industry, up from $400 million in 2001 and $200 million in 1992 and it’s still growing, says the American Association for Nude Recreation, which promotes au natural vacations as “nakations.” AANR also publishes an annual, North American Guide to Nude Recreation, which offers information on more than 200 clothes-free and clothing-optional resorts, clubs and RV campgrounds throughout the United States and Canada.

The types of nude vacations available have expanded too. Vacationers can now roll out a mat at all-nude yoga retreats, share banana bread with other guests at clothes-free and clothing optional bed-and-breakfasts, gear up for nude mountain biking in California’s High Desert and saunter around the decks of cruise ships chartered specifically for nudists. In Germany, a travel operator has even arranged for an all-nude charter flights to nudist vacation destinations. The naturists take off and land fully clothed, but shed their clothes once airborne. The flight attendants and crew, however, keep their uniforms on.

A number of travel agencies have sprung up, like Bare Necessities Tour & Travel that specializes in booking nude travel. Most nude vacationers say that what they enjoy most is liberation from the typical pretenses of society. According to nudists, when a person doesn’t have any clothes on, you don’t know if someone is a judge or a doctor, a lawyer or a mechanic. People are simply who they are.

Nude recreation, of course, goes back at least to the ancient Greeks, who competed in the Olympics while nude but it wasn’t until the dawn of the 20th century when nudism became organized in America. Kurt Barthel, a German immigrant, the acknowledged founder of American nudism, on Labor Day in 1929 led a small group of individuals to picnic in the buff in upstate New York and organized the first official nudist club, the American League for Physical Culture (present day American Association for Nude Recreation), where nudists paid dues to gather to swim, socialize and relax in the nude.

The one problematic issue with nude vacationing as I see it, is that many of the upscale resorts available to those seeking clothes-free or clothing optional vacation venues, are couples oriented, meaning that single nudists are effectively excluded unless they can find someone to partner up with. This is due primarily to the desire on the part of many resorts to distance themselves from the hedonistic “adult alternative” resorts where it is recreational sex rather than mere nudity that is the focus. Still increasing numbers of locations can be found with a little due diligence on the part of singles who desire to avail themselves of the opportunities for nakationing.

Many speculate that American’s increasing interest in health and wellness may be one contributing factor to the rise in popularity of clothing-optional vacations. But it is also likely that many people are traveling to nudist destinations for simple ultraistic reasons such as the achievement of harmony with nature. Naturist travel is a form of self-expression that dates back to Walt Whitman and John Muir, as well as Thoreau, all of whom advocated being as true to yourself as possible and the truest you can be is taking off those clothes.

Unique opportunities to go nude

Besides the normal fare open to naturists like clothing-optional beaches and resorts, a less well known recreational option is found in cruises. Combining these two words creates a most intriguing phrase, “nude cruise.” The concept while certainly curiosity piquing also invites lots of questions. Are there really cruises one can take wearing nothing more than SPF-30 sunscreen? Yes actually there are, thanks mostly to the efforts of a visionary couple from Austin, Texas, Tom and Nancy Tiemann, who in 1990 formed a travel agency, Bare Necessities, which charters entire ships for those who desire a cruise experience in the buff.

The Tiemann’s, after an “accidental” visit to a nude beach, began looking for upscale nude recreation activities. Finding none, they decided to open Bare Necessities Travel Agency and began searching out cruise lines interested in hosting nude cruises. It took almost two years before they were able to contract for the first cruise, but the idea took off from there and the rest is history. 53 cruises and 20 years later, in March 2010, they will be celebrating their twentieth year anniversary of producing nude cruises with a 16 day, luxury cruise to Hawaii aboard the Celebrity Constellation.

As a veteran of the more common clothed variety of cruising, I can easily imagine the benefits of not having to calculate what outfits to take based on formal nights and freedom from having to use the somewhat expensive laundry service on board ships. It is certainly appealing to imagine packing everything for a two week vacation in one small suitcase. But are people really nude the entire time on a nude cruise? Actually, the answer is no, but for the most part, passengers can choose to be nude anywhere and any time onboard ship: in the pool, in the casino, in the night clubs and the fitness center. Swimming and sunbathing au naturel is of course a given. The only exceptions are that passengers must be dressed to dine in the formal dining room, where clothes are required and must be covered when the ship is entering or leaving port. Even in the formal dining room, clothing can consist of as little as a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops which is quite a departure from the normal rules when cruising.

According to Bare Necessities, the demographics of those they have booked for their nude cruises ranges from bus drivers and soccer moms to doctors and Fortune 500 CEOs. They even claim at least one Canadian Supreme Court justice among their past customers. The average age of nude cruise guests generally ranges between 45 and 55, with almost all being couples, either married or otherwise attached.

One question that is certain to occur to many is whether the ship’s crew is naked and the answer is no. In fact representatives of Bare Necessities typically meet with the crews in advance of sailings to address questions and concerns. Understandably, many crewmembers are initially a bit shocked by the idea and aren’t sure how they are expected to interact with nude passengers.

If you have ever been on a cruise, I’m sure you recall how frequently you found yourself in the sights of a ship’s photographer and how aggressively the cruise lines market photographs and cruise videos to passengers. Many passengers can be found making their daily pilgrimage to the photo display area to review the “catch of the day.” Here again is a departure from the norm when it comes to nude cruises. Due to obvious privacy concerns, no one need worry that they will show up nude in photographs or in the cruise video. The restriction on photography alone is to me almost reason enough to eschew the normal cruises for a nude cruise.

Many might assume that nude cruises are simply a hedonistic swinger cruise and one big sex orgy on the high seas. Not so say the Tiemanns. The rule is, “Don't do anything outside your cabin that you wouldn’t do outside your home.” In keeping with the traditionally accepted naturist etiquette on conduct and behavior, overt sexual activity is verboten.

I can imagine that the idea of a nude cruise might appeal to some who would never consider visiting a nudist resort or clothing-optional beach and it does in fact appear to be a pretty non-threatening way to dip your toe into social nudity. Be forewarned however that you can expect to pay considerably more for a nude cruise than if you were taking a more generic clothed variety cruise to the same locale. Prices for the eight day, Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Miracle, October 27 – November 4, 2009, advertised on the Bare Necessities web site, average at about $1500 - $1700 for least desirable cabin selections. The Carnival Cruise web site advertises the regular eight day, Caribbean cruises, sailing on comparable ships, traveling to comparable ports of call during the same time period for an average of $500 - $800 per persons and with better cabin selections. In fact on the regular cruises, one can actually get a suite for the same price as they can expect to pay for an interior cabin on a less desirable deck on the nude cruise.

I admit to feeling a fair amount of sticker shock when I first investigated the prices for a nude cruise but admittedly I am a pretty frugal person. At first blush I wasn’t at all sure I could be convinced to part with that kind of cash for a nude sailing. Certainly I’m not knocking the concept. It’s just that $1700 would likely buy me a lifetime membership to one of the local, albeit less luxurious nudist resorts in my area. Part of the extra cost is of course due to the fact that it is a private sailing, with the entire ship booked for nude travelers and of course I allow that one should expect to pay a bit more for something that is still a novelty of sorts. Admittedly, it does seem Bare Necessities has no trouble finding customers willing and able to bear the prices offered as all of the nude cruises advertised on their site for 2009 – 2010 are close to selling out. Now that I think about, the savings from paying for the professional photography alone might just justify the higher fare. I suspect that the Tiemanns may have had difficulty selling the idea of nude cruises to the cruise lines in the beginning, but I rather imagine that the lines “stand in line” to compete for their business these days.

Do you have any interest in setting sail on a nude cruise? If so, for more information on Bare Necessities cruises check out their web site.