The Best Five Nudist Beaches on Tenerife

Here are the five best beaches to get naked on Tenerife.

South East Tenerife – Playa de la Tejita, El Médano

Lying barely a hop, skip and a jump from the Tenerife Sur airport and a short drive from the main southern resorts, Playa de la Tejita is a long wide pale golden sand beach. Although naturists can be found along the length of the beach most tend to congregate in the lovely little cove at the foot of the Red Mountain (Montaña Roja). The Mountain is popular with walkers as well and encountering visitors taking advantage of being able to top up the tan as they walk in the nude is not uncommon. In fact various naked events are held at the beach. 2010 saw the first 3km naked race on Playa de la Tejita.

The downside to Playa de la Tejita is that it lies on the south east coast and is often windswept. Little stone windbreaks dotted along the length of the beach are evidence of sunbathers trying to prevent the wind from snadblasting them.

North East Tenerife – Playa de Las Gaviotas, Santa Cruz

The beach lies beyond Tenerife’s golden jewel in the crown, Las Teresitas beach about 12 kilometres from the capital city Santa Cruz. It’s natural black sand and has spectacular views along the north eastern tip of the island. Because it is located a long distance from the tourist resorts, most of the beaches unclothed users aren’t visitors, so it’s a good beach to get to know the natives. The beach has a small car park and a basic beach bar which serves food.

The downside to Playa Las Gaviotas is that during summer months when Spanish mainlanders descend on the island it can become very, very busy. Finding a spot to shed the clothes can be quite a task.

North Tenerife – Playa de los Patos, La Orotava

One of three lovely coves hidden in the cliffs. Playa de los Patos lies only a few kilometres outside of the main northern tourist resort of Puerto de la Cruz, yet is unknown by the majority of the town’s visitors. Access is via a narrow road then a path which links the three black sand beaches of Playa Bollullo (the main beach), Playa de los Patos and Playa Ancón.

There’s a rough car park at Playa Bollullo as well as a restaurant. There’s also a laid back beach bar serving snacks and tapas on the main beach as well.

Again because of its ‘hidden’ location, most of the people who use it are Canarios and the more adventurous tourists. Playa de los Patos is also popular with surfers and often people camp unofficially on the beach during summer months.

The downside to the beach is the access, some scrabbling across rocks is necessary, and the fact that the waves here are impressively huge, so swimming isn’t always an option.

East Tenerife – Los Abriguitos, Arico

Los Abriguitos isn’t one of Tenerife’s official nudist beaches, but as being naked in Spain isn’t illegal, the ‘official’ tag usually just means most popular. It’s located on a quiet area of the east coast and has pale golden sand and lovely aquamarine seas. There’s a small modern housing development near the main beach where there are a couple of cafés and restaurants.

Sunbathers who want to strip off completely usually head to the cove beyond the main beach. There’s an interesting deserted former lepers’ colony behind the beach worth exploring when the sun gets too hot.

The downside to this beach is that the modern housing development near it is a bit of a blot on the landscape.

South Tenerife – Playa Callao, Los Cristianos

Again, not officially a naturist beach, but visitors staying in the south of Tenerife who prefer to sunbathe ‘au natural’ head to this pleasant beach at the base of Montaña de Guaza. It’s far, but not too far, from the resort’s madding crowds. The beach itself is a mix of sand and pebbles and, despite it’s proximity to the popular resorts of Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas, usually remains quite quiet and feels relatively secluded.

The only downside is that climbing Montaña de Guaza is a popular walking route, so sunbathers may find a steady stream of hikers gawking at them.