Croatia - My Experience

[ecatcher]

Hello all,

I have not posted in some time, but I wanted to share my experience this past summer visiting the wonderful country of Croatia.

My wife and I flew into the city of Dubrovnik. We stayed in an AirBnB apartment in old town near the port. Despite living in an area that is regularly 90-100 degrees (f), we found the climate to be extremely warm. Fortunately our entire trip was near the sea where we could swim to cool off.

We took a ferry to the island of Lokrum to explore. After walking up the hill to the watch tower we were dripping with sweat. Fortunately there is an FKK beach on the far side of the island. We walked to the beach, found a flat spot to lay our towels down, stripped off, and dove in. The relief from the heat was wonderful!

We stayed there most of the afternoon. The other people on the beach were mostly older men, but there were some couples around. People more or less kept to themselves. We did meet another young couple on holiday, as well as a middle aged man, and spent hours talking to them about culture, politics, everything. Very nice folks all in all.

After a few days we rented a car and drove to Makarska. There we spent some time on Nugal beach. It took a bit of walking to get there, but the beach was very nice. Here, probably more than anywhere else we went, people went entirely unclothed. There were several families with children enjoying the beach. It was a delightful and casual atmosphere. The only negative aspect aside from the long walk was the second hand smoke. We found this everywhere we went, but it seemed especially pronounced on Nugal beach.

The next day we went on a trip to the island of Brac. While waiting for the ferry (several hour wait because we missed it) we parked the car in line and went to a nearby beach on the far end of the peninsula. It was an unofficial FKK beach, and unlike some of the other beaches we went to, there seemed to be many locals, mostly older. There were some young people around, but most went topless rather than fully nude. That said, the water there was crystal clear and at a perfect temperature. One somewhat funny thing on that particular beach was that the local "submarine" tours passed by once every twenty minutes or so. My naked self is probably featured in several vacation photos. *shrug*

On the island of Brac we went to the world famous Zlatni Rat beach. After spending some time on the tip of the beach watching the kite boarders and wind surfers we went to the FKK section. The closer we got to the FKK area, the less clothing people wore. Once we were beyond the rocks, everyone was entirely nude. The atmosphere was quite relaxed and there was a reasonable mixture of young, old, male, and female. We spent some time snorkeling there and saw some interesting sea life. There were a few others snorkeling and no one seemed to mind. It was very casual. Later that evening we were still very warm so went back to the beach (you pay for all day parking, might as well use it!) and swam at dusk. To our surprise, we ended up having most of the beach to ourselves which we found to be quite tranquil and relaxing.

From there we moved away from the coast and visited some national parks. We eventually made our way to Istria. There we stayed at Valalta naturist park. On our way to the park we drove past a sign advertising a nearby swingers resort, which made me a little uneasy. Thankfully, other than a single conversation I overheard on the subject on the beach, Valalta was entirely family friendly. While we had been nude on beaches before, we had never been a clothing optional camp. It was a rather new experience for us. We arrived near dusk and set up our tent. Once we freed ourselves of our clothing we set off to explore the camp. It was a warm evening (to us) and we were enjoying the sea breeze on our naked bodies as we walked around.

We began to notice that many fellow campers (mostly the women) were entirely clothed. At first we dismissed it and thought little about it, but after walking for about a half hour my wife felt uneasy being the only woman we encountered that was nude. Now mind you, no one said anything to us or gave us reason to feel uneasy or threatened, it was just a feeling of being out of place. We found our way to the restaurant where they were broadcasting a football match. I enjoyed a beer while she had some wine. Some women here were topless, and most of the men were nude. After the match we walked back to camp.

The next day everyone was nude almost exclusively. Apparently it was somewhat customary to wear clothes when it cooled down (it was still hot, I don't get it) and not to wear anything while the sun was up. We greatly enjoyed our time that day. It was so freeing to be able to strut around without clothing and simply enjoy the sun and wind with complete approval. There were hundreds and hundreds of people, but it never felt crowded. There were many families and people of all ages. Coming from America I was surprised at how laid back it all was. I was especially impressed with the teenage boys and girls who seemed to play together without any sexual connotations despite being nude. I already believed that nudity and sexuality are different categories, but it was heartening to see such innocence in practice on such a wide scale.

We ended up making friends with some young adults, two gals one guy, from Slovenia and had a wonderful time getting to know them. They were extremely curious about America and we just had an incredible time with them. The only negative encounter happened later that afternoon. While lounging on the beach, I overheard a man speaking with a couple behind us. While thier English was poor, it was good enough for me to understand them discussing their swinging experiences in graphic detail. I felt that it served to conflate the issues and distort what naturism is really about. We voted with our feet and left the area to meet up with our Slovenian friends. We enjoyed a short nude hike and very nice sunset together, discussing life, languages, and whatever else came to mind.

After leaving Valalta the next day we went to a beach south of Rovinj. I don't recall the name of it, but it was just a local swimming area with a mixture of people clothed, fully nude, and anywhere in-between. The age group was middle aged and younger. We snorkeled there and played in the water.

Finally, our last bout of naturism was on the kamenjak peninsula. One the far south west point we encountered several other people swimming and sunning nude. No one seemed to mind or care so we joined in. I can't describe how incredible the conditions were. The nice warm sun, the crystal clear water, jumping into the sea from the rocks, and snorkeling with a wide array of fishes were some highlights. Toward sundown we met another couple and their children who were all also nude. They were middle aged with young children. We hit it off with them and hung out with them for hours. They treated us to dinner at the Safari bar and we had a wonderful time. It was wonderful to see such a loving naturist family. At one point I tried to ask them about it and their response surprised me. They looked at me funny as though I asked them what it was like to breath air. They didn't answer and just kept talking as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I guess it was.

Overall our trip was incredible. I highly recommend it for anyone considering it.

[Marzipan]

Wow! That is an FKK trip of a lifetime. Thank you for sharing!

[cp]

 

Sounds like an awesome experience.. great share thanks

[Bomagnon]

Thanks for this. Sounds like you had a great time 

[Night Listener]

What a informative and thoroughly written report! Thank you for your contribution!

[pvct]

Really informative about Croatia. Thank you very much for sharing!

[Crylalt]

Great report, thanks for sharing!

[nudiecouchsurfer]

Sounds like an awesome trip - what month did u visit - I'm guessing was in summer?

[M@tt]

That's a great write up, thanks! I'm also considering going to Croatia later this year, so echo the "what month did you go?" question...

[Crylalt]

That's a great write up, thanks! I'm also considering going to Croatia later this year, so echo the "what month did you go?" question...

Croatia a relatively northern country and is quite cold in the offseason, so if you want a good beach experience you should go there in July-August (maybe 2 first weeks of September and 2 last weeks of June can be fine too, but that depends on the weather)

[NudieDaniel]

Sounds like an awesome trip - what month did u visit - I'm guessing was in summer?

He said summer at top of his post I'm not to sure if Croatia's  climate is temperate year around. This is a great write up sounds Croatia lives up to the hype when it comes to naturism. 

[ecatcher]

Sounds like an awesome trip - what month did u visit - I'm guessing was in summer?

It was July.

Croatia a relatively northern country and is quite cold in the offseason, so if you want a good beach experience you should go there in July-August (maybe 2 first weeks of September and 2 last weeks of June can be fine too, but that depends on the weather)

Honestly, the weather was so hot is was fairly uncomfortable anywhere but the beach. My wife and I are both normally fairly comfortable in high heat, but something about the heat in Croatia was much more oppressive.

If you are trying to decide between August or July, the people we spoke with while we visited mentioned that it was less busy in July than August because many Italians take August as holiday which means more beach-goers. This could be good or bad depending on what you are looking for, personally I wouldn't have minded as only the most popular beaches were particularly crowded in my opinion.

If you have any other questions I'd be happy to try and answer!

[Lena]

July and August are the main months for holidays in croatia. If you like to have a little bit colder temperatures and/or less people around you, i would suggest to go in june, but not in september. You can be lucky in september, but most of the time the really bad weather starts at that time, with storms and endless rain.

[Leah]

We were in Istria and northern Dalmatia the first week of this year - temperature was 3-10C (38-50F), snow on the hills and fairly cool sea water.  Not much was open but the area was still spectacular.

[Kathy21]

@ecatcher: thanks for sharing! the beacharea in the south of Rovinj probably was Koversada. I know this area since childness. You had a very great summer in Croatia, I guess!