Sunday 13 August 2023, by Karie Jane from BHH Naturist Resort
Fuerteventura has naturist beaches as far as the eye can see
The beaches of the Jandía peninsula are very much a tale of two halves. From the busy and relatively sheltered sands of the east coast, easily explored on foot from Costa Calma, to the wild and rugged coastal wilderness of the west coast there are naturist experiences of every kind to enjoy.
Fuerteventura resident for 9 years and BHH Naturist resort Owner, British born Karie Jane describes the many naturist opportunities she has encountered along both sides of the island’s south-west.
East coast tranquility
Costa Calma sits at the top of the Jandía Peninsula, a gateway to some of the most amazing naturist experiences anywhere in the world. There is a beach for every type of naturism imaginable, plus some wonderful wilderness walking where clothes are very much optional.
Add the accommodation of BHH Naturist Resort you have the perfect recipe for a truly naturist holiday.
This peninsula is a narrow finger of land, yet manages to pack in an extraordinary range of landscapes, a place of extreme contrasts from packed nude beaches on one side to mile upon mile of desert wilderness on the other. It’s hard to say which side I prefer, I spend all my days naked on either coast and they just get better with every visit.
The easiest place to start is the calm and sheltered east coast, with its vast beaches of soft golden sand and shallow blue waters. The name Costa Calma accurately reflects this tranquil setting, and serves as the perfect gateway to this long run of beautiful coastline. From the last two bays at the southern end of town I have walked naked along every yard of these beaches, all the way down to the prominent lighthouse at the final settlement of Morro Jable.
It is about 11 miles in total, a wonderful mix of flat beaches, black cliffs, sheltered lagoons and vast sand dunes. Nearly all of it used by naturists apart from around a few resort hotels, and even there you might spot one or two sunbeds occupied by naked sun worshippers.
Starting in Costa Calma itself then, naturism begins in earnest before you have even left town. The last two bays as you head south are below big hotel complexes, largely occupied by German tourists and mostly naturist whenever I have visited. The bays are each about 200 metres long and perfectly sheltered by rocky headlands, marked as naturist at one end, textile at the other. In practice on a hot day the naturists greatly outnumber the swimming costumes all the way along these busy coves, an easygoing mix that sets the scene for the vast miles of coastline further to the south.
Different sections of this long coastline are given their own names, although in practice it is little more than one long run of beach with a few rocky headlands along the way. The entire coast sometimes referred to as Playa Sotavento, and the smaller sections named according to the villages or hotels behind them.
Turning round the corner of the final headland at the end of Costa Calma reveals another long bay popular with naturists, Playa Esmeralda, with a deep hinterland of bushes and gently sloping sand dunes that offers shelter for dozens of naturists.
If this beach looks big and open compared to the bays in town, that is absolutely nothing compared to the next stretch of coastline. The word ‘vast’ is hardly strong enough to describe the endless acres of wide sandy shoreline, a 2.5-mile stretch of coast often referred to as Playa Gorriones. At low tide this beach is nearly half a mile wide, a flat desert landscape that floods with seawater to form a calm lagoon when the tide is high.
So safe is the water along here it plays host to a large windsurfing centre at the far end of Playa Gorriones, by small cluster of holiday apartments at a place called Risco del Paso. Two enormous sand dunes have built up at the back of the beach along here, offering shelter to the sunbathers, and a fine vantage point from where to look out over the colourful mix of golden sand, turquoise water, bronzed naturists and multi-coloured sails.
This section of beach ends where black cliffs plunge vertically down into the soft sand. If you are walking, at this point you will be about five miles away from Costa Calma, nearly half way to Morro Jable. This wide beach gives way to a rockier stretch of coast, the first point where a pair of sandals will be helpful until you emerge on to yet another wide beach, below the abandoned building site of Mal Nombre. A solitary beach restaurant here, the Tierra Dorada, is one of very few places to buy food on the shore itself, a friendly establishment where diners gaze contentedly over the deep golden sands.
Heading further south around another headland brings you to the start of a relatively busy stretch of coast, a long ribbon of hotel developments known as Esquinzo. Even here with the higher numbers of sunbathers naturists remain well represented along most of the shore, gathering in one last bay before a long section crowded with sunbeds used by the guests of two vast hotel complexes. The occasional naturist sunbather mixes among the textile majority.
Beyond Esquinzo the coast becomes quieter again, steep rocky cliffs at the back of the beaches keeping the crowds at bay until the shore opens out once more beside yet another large hotel complex, at Piedras Caidas. Even on a hot day I’ve yet to see more than one or two naturists among the crowds, a short but densely populated stretch of this beach with another windsurfing and sailing centre in the middle.
From here the beach opens out for a final wide vista of sands stretching all the way south to the lighthouse in Morro Jable, too vast ever to be crowded and well used by naturists making the most of the space and freedom.
West coast wilderness
Between the black mountains and the thundering surf, the west coast could not be more different to the calmer waters and busier beaches on the other side of the peninsula. It is as bare as any landscape can be. Denuded of vegetation, hotels, sunbeds and people, Fuerteventura’s wild shores and mountains are some of the last truly naked places left on Earth. Where else can you walk along a warm, sunny beach for an entire day without seeing another soul?
There are volcanoes to climb, cliffs to peer over, deep rock pools to plunge in and endless stretches of deserted sand. I never wore a stitch of clothing in all my explorations, and have only ever seen people in the far distance, if at all.
Best of all this wild west coast can be reached from Costa Calma on foot. You simply need to walk across the peninsula, crossing the main highway via an underpass and continuing for around two miles across a flat landscape of sand and rock. Pretty soon you will be looking over at the endless expanse of the western Atlantic ocean, whose waves thunder in and crash into the rocky shore with terrifying force. If you turn right and head north you will reach the surfers’ paradise town of La Pared in a couple of miles, one of very few places along here where swimming off the black sand beaches is relatively safe.
Otherwise turn left and head towards the mesmerising vista of wild beaches and black mountains, the spray from the pounding surf covering its furthest reaches in a haze of mystery and adventure. I once walked from early morning to sunset along this coast, more than 20 miles of mountain paths and open beach, and saw nobody all day. At one point I heard a light aircraft buzzing along the other side of the mountains, but never caught sight of it.
After two hours winding along the side of the mountains above dizzying cliffs and vast dunes, the rough coast path drops suddenly to the sand, a vista of gold that fades into a distant haze of spray. This first section of the beach is called Barlovento, while at the far end a single rough track winds its way to the little village of Cofete, which lends its name to that stretch of shore. In total the whole sandy coastline here runs for nine miles, a place where only the sorry mix of flotsam and jetsam might be your only reminder that other humans exist. And if you do encounter other beach users there’s a good chance they will be naked too, swimming costumes particularly pointless in such a remote location.
Mile upon mile of sands stretch out in either direction, eventually coming to a memorable end by the curious natural rock formation known as the Roque del Moro, a black finger of volcanic basalt that somehow survives the relentless pounding of the waves.
The whole southern end of the peninsula is bisected by a narrow ridge of black mountains. Its forbidding slopes of black rock can be crossed at a few points if you want to do a coast-to-coast walk further south from Costa Calma. The highest peak of these crumbling cliffs reaches 812 metres, while the mountain pass where I usually cross the range is a much more manageable 250 metres high. The walk begins by following a dried up river bed all the way to the top of the mountain pass for the descent to the remote beach of Barlovento. If you are interested in exploring this route, look up the Barranco de Pecenescal on Google: this is the name of the river bed which the first half of the walk follows. You can drive about a mile from the main highway to the start of this valley and park next to a seemingly disused goat enclosure and farm buildings.
The walk up the track is a gentle but steady rise up a winding and usually dry riverbed: you can't get lost because there is only this one valley. At the top there is a large cairn and a signpost to mark the top of the mountain pass, where you can pause before taking a few steps towards the breath-taking vista on the other side. Just over the brow of this ridge, the cliffs plummet downwards in a steep slope of black boulders, vivid red and white volcanic earths and narrow ravines towards this wild shore, almost other-worldly in its splendid isolation. A narrow path winds its way down towards the sands, rather more of a scramble than the riverbed is when coming up.
This west-coast ribbon of beach would be an overrun holiday paradise were it not for the unswimmable surf and the steep mountain range on either side. There is no way along the shore except on foot from either end, and you may well have it entirely to yourself.
From the busy nude beaches of Costa Calma and the naturist friendly accommodation of BHH Naturist Resort to absolute solitude, with every type of beach experience in between, the only difficulty I ever have is deciding where to go each day.
