In January 2001 'Mike2' posted the following enquiry to the uk.rec.naturist news group.
"I'm de-lurking to ask about beaches/restaurants to seek/avoid on
Fuerteventura. My wife and I are going to Caleta de Fuste in February. We'll have a car,
but she can't walk/climb very far.
If you have any comments about this report or wish to add further information
please email them to:
neffupdate @ ada-augusta . demon . co . uk
"Job Donjen" reportering@freeuk.com replied ...
Best beaches are on East coast, there are some on t'other side, but they tend to be rockier and difficult to access. Caleta de Fuste (Costillo to taxis and buses) is a good centre because it's in the middle, but that's its best feature.
Starting in the south, just up from Morro Jable is a turn off signposted to Club Aldiana. Follow the road down, then very short track to beach and small bar. Most people walk all of 50 metres before stripping off! Look out for clothes or flags on the rocky shelters, these indicate occupancy, but in February you should find somewhere to shelter, if needed. The beach stretches many miles north. About 10k north along the FV2 there is a sort-of crossroads, the right turning heading for the beach. Although it degenerates into a track, it was perfectly OK for my Corsa. This leads, once again, directly onto the magnificent Playa de Sotavento. Leave your clothes in the car! The grassy hillocks immediately south house a colony of meerkats who constantly pop up head and shoulders to see what's going on. At low tide a very long sandy spit becomes exposed and this is a favourite promenade. Another beach bar is at the car park. Another 4K north up the FV2 is another road off to the eyesore of Hotel Los Gorrentes. Follow road past front of Hotel and park up. Less than 100m to beach and northern end of that sand-spit.
The Caleta de Fuste beach parallels the FV2 further north still, but the whole area is a bit of a dump, with lots of new building work going on. North of the airport Puerto del Rosario sounds nice, but isn't. Going north on the FV1, past Parque Holandes, the scenery changes dramatically, over a brow, from volcanic debris to desert. There are small rocky beaches just off the road, but the best beaches are just a bit further on, where signs warn you not to park off the roadside apron. A 400m walk takes you to a very picturesque beach, with views over "Lanzagrotty". These are Playa del Morro, Playa del los Matos and Playa Bajo Negro. All naturist friendly, but there are a few spots of tar/oil on the H.W.M. - don't eat the black pebbles. As you go north on this beach and approach the large hotel, there is a clear, natural CO demarcation.
Forget the beaches north of El Cotillo on the other side at this time of year - it's cooler and windier - but quite pretty. My favourite? - ALL! quiet, expansive, great. Best tip - take a windbreak of some sort. Sunflower Books guide by Noel Rochford is quite useful, but really needs supplementing with decent maps. My info was correct mid-December.
Chris Thompson also replied ...
Whilst there in Jan 2000 we were reliably informed that virtually all Fuertaventura beaches are CO. We stayed at Caleta de Fusta which is OK but a bit ordinary. Try walking south from the fish restaurant on the west side of the bay and you will find many circular areas with low stone walls built to provide protection from the wind (and views). We tried one or two of these without any problems - but bear in mind that Caleta is populated with English textiles!!!
The coast north from Caletta is quite rocky and uninteresting until you reach the huge sand dunes in the north. This is a major naturist area, but usually very windy.
To the south there are several interesting and un-spoilt villages/beaches that can be reached by car. Hire one, you will enjoy it, and its very cheap to hire in Caletta. The best beach for us was at Morro Jable / Zandia, at the most southern end of the island. We will definitely return there. It seemed that you can strip off on virtually any part of the beach with impunity. But if you are nervous then locate the light house and head to that part of the beach. There are also some really good and cheap sea food restaurants along the beach front of Zandia, which is south from the light house. The area attracts a lot of Germans but not the types who have the reputation for grabbing all the sun-beds if you follow my drift.
Hope you enjoy the island as much as we did.
Don H also replied ...
Quite a few people seem to be seeking information on Fuerteventura recently. I've been going there for the last ten years so I know the place quite well. I've been sending individual replies, but then had the idea of doing a fact-sheet which I could copy into messages, and then thought 'why not post it anyway?' So here it is.
Weather
Fuerteventura is on the same latitude as Florida and Cairo. It lies 60 miles
off the African coast and has a barren, desert type landscape. Cloudy days
are common in winter, but rainfall is extremely low and will be short, sharp
showers rather than prolonged periods. The island is situated in the
northeast trade winds and there is a fairly strong NE wind blowing for much
of the time. This is stronger in summer than in winter. The wind tends to be
stronger in the northeast of the island than anywhere else. On the beaches
you will see low walls of black volcanic rock which have been built up as
windbreaks, which are very effective. It is possible to get occasional days
of flat calm when the temperature gets really high, but unfortunately the
wind also occasionally blows straight off the Sahara Desert, resulting in
sand storms. I've only experienced this once in all the time I've been going
there. Year round sunbathing is possible with temperatures in the high
teens/ low twenties centigrade in winter (as I write its 20 degrees at 5.30
in the evening) and rarely more than around 28 degrees in summer, due to the
cooling wind. The sun is very strong even in winter, and its quite easy to
overdo the sunburn if you are in a sheltered spot.
Nudity
Generally speaking, so long as you keep away from built up areas and away
from buildings, 'anything goes' and no one will make any objections. There
are small restaurants situated in shacks on some beaches, and its usual to
cover up when visiting these. There are no dedicated naturist resorts or
complexes on the island, but according to rumours I heard last year backed
up by a report in a recent edition of BN magazine, a naturist complex is a
possibility in the near future.
The Towns and beaches
The airport is situated on the eastern side of the island, near to the
capital of Puerto Del Rosario. This town is like Beiruit on a bad day. Someone with a perverted sense of humour lists a beach here (I think 'Playa
Blanca') as being naturist. It's not, don't waste your time trying to find
it. Fortunately there is now a bypass around Rosario so you don't have to
contend with it. Incidentally, the road system is very adequate - not high
speed roads, but all well surfaced and with very little traffic.
Corralejo
This is situated about 30 minutes drive from the airport on the northern tip
of the island. On the southern edge of the town is the Dunas de Corralejo
National Park - several miles of huge sand dunes along the coast and through
which the main road passes. Nudity is okay anywhere along here except in the
immediate vicinity of the two huge, ugly hotels built in the middle of the
beach. South of the hotels there is almost 100% nudity except for one small
cove right beside the road, north of them and right up to the building line
of Corralejo its more like 50%.
This is one of the main resorts used by British package tour companies. It's
grown enormously over the last few years and is now a characterless, concrete town filled with apartment blocks and a small number of hotels.
However, I've not come across any bad accommodation there and to compensate
there are plenty of good restaurants. Most accommodation has its own
swimming pool, so the body-guilt ridden 'Brits' tend to stay around the pool
whilst we few enlightened ones, and the many Germans/Dutch/Austrians head
for the beach.
As a rough guide, anyone staying in the town centre area will have a 30 - 40
minute brisk walk to the beach, with less walking the further south you are
based. There is also a mini tram which goes from the town centre right down
to the edge of the built up area near the dunes.
In March 2001 John Simpson reported many Meerkats (voyeurs) on this beach and recommended El Cotillo as an alternative.
El Cotillo
20 minutes drive from Corralejo across to the NW corner of the island is El
Cotillo, a small fishing village. There are half a dozen very small
apartment blocks here, some in the village and some to the north. There are
beaches to the south of the village, under low cliffs, and better ones to
the north in a series of small coves. The last apartment block you come to
up here is El Caleton. This is right on the beach, and depending on the
frame of mind of your fellow guests its possible to be nude all the time.
I'm told its the same at Maravilla Apartments, which are a bit closer to the
village. The cleaning/maintenance are done by a man & wife who look after
both blocks, who have seen it all many times so they're not bothered how you
choose not to dress. There are half a dozen average restaurants here. This
is a really good location for an away from it all break.
Mike Berridge added ... El Cotillo in the West is also very good, and the beaches, just down tracks on the road to the south are generally good. Jandia in the South is clothes optional away from the town, but the travel companies going there are mainly German, possible due to this area being a German submarine depot during WW2.
Caleta de Fuste
Moving south from the airport and about 15 minutes drive is Caleta. This is
a completely purpose built resort and is being heavily plugged by the
holiday companies. Its ten years since I was there, when it had no character
and very little for the naturist so I cant see it having improved.
It has a very good sandy beach which is 100% textile. If you walk south, the
beach and sea bed become very rocky, with a few rock shelters as described
above. There were a few of us naked down here, but you get a lot of
wanderers up and down as well as the usual 'pretending to look for my wife'
brigade - in the words of She-who-must-be-obeyed, 'It's like sunbathing in
a bloody goldfish bowl.' Even if you have a car, it's a fairly long drive
to any suitable beaches so avoid this one if possible.
And Job Donjen added ... Absolutely spot-on evaluation, with the addition that this whole region now resembles a cross between a rubbish tip and a building site. Enormous developments now taking place, even the creation of a golf course. Ugh. It's cheap, however in terms of package deals. Avoid the "supermercardos" - some prices are DOUBLE that of real ones.
Mike Berridge was equally pessimistic ... Caleta is probably the worst place to go for naturism on the whole island. You will need to go to the far end of the beach to find any area where people do strip off, adn then there are very few people there. There are a few areas in the complex that are FKK, but as expected they tend to be German, we saw about three secluded gardens.
And 'AndyC' added ... Yes, Caletta de Fuste is an asylum for football shirted red-necked Englanders. Get out as soon as you get there.
Costa Calma/Morro JableJust about accessible without having to resort to four wheel drive is one of the most spectacular beaches your are likely to see, Playa de Cofete, on the opposite side of the peninsula. To get there continue through Morro Jable towards Punta de Jandia along a wide but unsurfaced road. About halfway to the punta, the road forks. Take the right fork and climb over a pass in the hills (good viewpoint) and head down to the beach. The setting here is wonderful, with a huge empty sandy beach backed by steep hills, and the big Atlantic rollers coming in.
Further afield
There are many more beaches available than I have listed here, but I've
never felt the need to seek them out. A four wheel drive would be needed if
you did want to explore the more remote ones. Some of these places are
extremely isolated and there's no one there to pull you out of the sand if
you get stuck.
Transport
There's a good bus service based on Rosario, with buses going to all the
above towns. There's also a service linking Corralejo with El Cotillo. If you
hire a car, take a look at Cicar (Canary Island Cars) who do late model
cars for prices you would expect to pay at rent a wreck.
A few websites (I have no connection with any company listed here)
http://www.fuerteventura.ws: beaches, accommodation, weather, all sorts of stuff,
really good
http://www.lanzarote-fuerte.com/fuerteventura: general info
http://www.sunseekerholidays.com: a naturist friendly holiday
company
http://www.islandseekers.co.uk: a naturist friendly holiday
company
http://www.dune.uk.com/: naturist friendly holiday company
I hope this information is of some interest and help to would-be visitors to Fuerteventura. Any comments and/or corrections appreciated.
Don Hill donhill@eidosnet.co.uk
In April 2001, Peter Davis opined that from the peace and quiet perspective El Cotillo is the place but if he had to pick an overall favourite it would have to be the dunes south of Olivia beach, Corallejo. He warned that essential item for any beach on Fuerteventura has to be a beach tent of some description unless you can get to the beach in the early hours and grab a stone circle. He went on to say...
"Probably the best beach can be found as you drive towards the Olivia beach hotel(s) from the Caletta De Fuste direction. As you drive along the main road you can see the hotels in the far distance. Look for a tarmac pull-in on the right and park up there. Don't whatever you do drive onto the sand as you will sink and a few minutes after doing so a nice man in an four wheel drive will appear and pull you out.......... for a fee."
"Lock your car up and walk in a straight line across the sand and dunes to the see and you should come across a really nice bay; fine sand and more naturists than you can throw a stick at. Its fine for swimming though you have to be wary of the strong currents. OK for kids with supervision. Quite a few German folk happy to speak to you. If you grab a pair of shorts and walk about half a mile towards where the hotels are you'll come across a couple of good beach bars. One serves reasonably good food and there are toilets."
In reply to an enquiry in October, Steve Doerr wrote, "Riu Palace Tres Islas and Riu Oliva Beach are two adjacent hotels that would be very handy for the naturist beach areas" but did not state which beaches. He added, "I haven't stayed at either, however, so I cannot give an opinion as to their quality."
If you have any comments about this report or wish to add further information
please email them to:
neffupdate @ ada-augusta . demon . co . uk
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