Location: France
What's Cool: Taking an au naturel sculpture class
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Travelers looking for an authentic nude beach experience should go to Centre Hélio Montalivet, the birthplace of the international naturist movement. Established in 1950, this nude beach resort on France's Atlantic Coast provides a safe and legal wilderness setting for nudists and their families. Within the complex are more than 1,800 camp sites, 172 bungalows, shops and facilities for art classes, yoga, soccer and more. No other nude beach or camp on earth rivals Mont...
Nude Beach. The very mention of these two words often arouses feelings of titillation, embarrassment, outrage or even a combination of the three. For the thousands of people involved in the naturist movement worldwide, however, the idea of a nude beach seems, well, natural. After all, we all come into this world wearing only our birthday suits.
Nude and topless beaches first became popular along the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of France in the 1950s. Since then, several beaches from Crete to the Caribbean have become "clothing optional."
Below is a list of some of the best stretche...
St. Lucia is the sort of island that travellers to the Caribbean dream about--a small, lush tropical gem that is still relatively unknown. One of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located midway down the Eastern Caribbean chain, between Martinique and St. Vincent, and north of Barbados. St. Lucia is only 27 miles long and 14 miles wide, with a shape that is said to resemble either a mango or an avocado (depending on your taste). The Atlantic Ocean kisses its eastern shore, while the beaches of the west coast owe their beauty to the calm Caribbean Sea.
Mount Desert Island, off the coast of Maine, is widely known as the home of Acadia National Park and the town of Bar Harbor. If we viewed the island from the air (a look at the Acadia map will do), we would notice north and south aligned gouges scooped out of the land as if by a very large hand. Indeed, in this case, the hand was that of a huge, slow moving, continental glacier over a mile high,... 2 miles thick in some places. When this giant glacier finally melted and retreated, it left rounded mountain tops, long lakes, many boulders, and the 7 mile long Somes Sound - the only fjord on the ...
The Beaches of ATLANTIC CITY, VENTNOR, MARGATE & LONGPORT
For many years, Atlantic City was America's premier beach resort. That was before there were casinos. It was a time when people came to Atlantic City for the beach. Today, as then, the beach still stretches for miles however a large portion is backed up by casinos and the heavily travelled boardwalk.
The Main Atlantic City beach is a setting to itself. The main beach runs along the boardwalk and the casino strip and is divided every several blocks by huge piers that jut into the ocean. You can stroll along the beach under the...
Look around at the elegant resort hotels, golf courses, casino, marinas, and shopping malls of Freeport/Lucaya – and you may find it hard to believe that none of this existed when JFK was president. Faster-paced than Nassau, this cosmopolitan "second city" of the Bahamas is really only four decades old, a monument to modern tourism. But what makes Grand Bahama special is the fact that while you can play, shop, gamble, and boogie the night away to your heart's content in American-style comfort, much of the island remains as it was before the resort revolution.
That includes miles of uncr...
Grenada's greatest natural assets are, well…its natural assets. Beach lovers have their pick of more than 40 ribbons of sand. Grand Anse, with two miles of white sand and sheltered waters, is the best known, but secluded strands abound within easy reach along the east coast – if you have a 4-wheel-drive. And you'll want one on this island of tropical rain forests, waterfalls, mountain lakes – and some of the most rewarding hikes in the Caribbean. One of the rewards? Take a deep breath: The scent of spices – nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and clove – is always in the air.
Grenada...
The hills are alive with the sound of music. And so are the concert halls, parks, and pubs, because traditional Celtic music is the very heartbeat of this scenic slice of Nova Scotia. Scottish and French immigrants settled this island of forested mountains and valleys, and their musical heritage can be heard in festivals throughout the summer. The fiddle rules here (a savvy traveler would listen to CDs from Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIssac to get in the proper spirit before arriving), and dances can last well into the night.
But save some energy for the daylight hours, because this is...
As you drive south into the Florida Keys, you’ll see the signs for the first of the islands…Key Largo. If you’re a fan of old movies, you’ll probably think of Bogart and Bacall, trapped with some gangsters in a hotel during a hurricane. Key Largo was mostly filmed on a Hollywood sound stage, but the script was written in the island’s only hotel at the time, and the 1948 classic helped create the mystique of the keys as the last-chance, tropical end-of-the-road on the Atlantic Seaboard.
Today Key Largo, the longest in the island chain, is a popular bedroom community and a favorite stop for ...
Islamorada likes to bill itself as "Sportfishing Capital of the World" and does boast the largest fleet of charter boats in the Florida Keys. Why all the action? Well, fishermen have the choice of charging into the Atlantic for sailfish, tuna, and mahi-mahi along the Gulf Stream, or heading for the shallow "backcountry" waters of Florida Bay and the Everglades for a flyfishing foray after elusive bonefish and tarpon.
Like its neighbor just to the north, Key Largo, Islamorada also gives divers a chance to snorkel shallow reefs or dive on shipwrecks – including the 287-foot Eagle, sunk as an...
