Out of the ashes of Yugoslavia, the country of Croatia was born. The Adriatic coast of that region has a long tradition of naturism, and since the end of the war in 1995, it has once again become a popular destination for droves of European nudists.
To help guide us, we contacted Croatian Pero Milos, a travel agent operating out of Milan, Italy, who maintains a very detailed web site about nudism and scuba diving in his home country. Both are his passions, he told us, so for him it was logical to combine the topics.
According to Milos, Croatia offers twenty official nudist resorts, and 10 legal nude beaches, including the oldest at Paradise Beach, on Rab island. With over 1000 islands, the country’s Adriatic coast offers plenty of places away from prying eyes for unofficial nudism. Naturist beaches in Croatia are identified by signs referring to “FKK”, the German acronym for “Free body culture”, Milos points out.
While nudists from the rest of Europe, particularly Germany, abound during the summer months, Croats, Milos says, while liberal, amount to less than 5% of all visitors to nudist resorts. The Croatian government, however, openly supports naturism, even devoting a page to it on their official tourism site (see link below). Said page is long on poetry and a little short on useful information!
Both Milos and the government site claim that nudism officially started in Croatia in 1936, when King Edward VIII of England and his American lover Wallis Simpson (whom he’d later abdicate for) skinny-dipped on the island of Rab, with the blessing of local authorities.
One of the more popular ways of enjoying Croatia is via a nude cruise. We’ll have more information about the latter in a future article.

Photo courtesy of Pero Milos. Copyright Pero Milos

• Pero Milo’s web site

• Croatian Government Tourism Site
• Croatian Nude Cruises