Years ago, we were invited to review the Key West Film Festival and we were booked into a Gay Clothing Optional Guest House.  The trouble was that their internet was so overloaded we couldn’t access it to file our reviews, as seemingly everyone else was accessing sites that promised more happy endings than the movies we were writing about 

Fast forward to the present day, and at a recent QUEERGURU Editorial Meeting, Toby, our  (every excitable) Style Editor, revealed that Clothing Optional places were a thing of the past, and what are now de riguer are HOLIDAYS IN THE NUDE! 

Who knew?  Well, evidently, the guys at EVERYTHING TO SEE, who started their tour company back in 2018 and which offers travel experiences to men who welcome opportunities to be naked.  Dave Power, the founder, is an American (well, you knew that a Brit would NEVER be this bold)  who was workimg as an escort/travel companion was on a naked sailing excursion in Greece when the idea started to form.

Soon after this light bulb moment,  Power made a new friend, Maximilian Strauss, during a ride on a small ferry boat. Eventually, he pitched Strauss his idea and the two of them became cofounders of Everything to Sea, which offers travel experiences to men who welcome opportunities to be naked. Fast fowwrd to the presnt time and , the company is now based in Singapore and offers sailing and villa experiences in France, Canary Islands, Thailand, Bali and the Coral Triangle in Southeast Asia. A New Zealand experience is in the works.

Power told Queerguru that he breaks down their customer base into various segments, with a wide range of ages and body types. There are experienced naturists, some of them very comfortable being naked with others in non-sexual situations like at nude beaches. There’s another tribe who are not so experienced, but they are intrigued by the idea. “They’re on that journey of getting more comfortable with their own naked body when it’s not in the sexual realm,” says Power. “That said, we are a sex-positive organization and we’re fine with people having sex on our trips. It’s like running a hotel. What are you going to do? Tell people not to have sex in the rooms? Some trips are more sex-forward and others might have very low sexual activity. It’s really about how to attend.” Some guests are couples, with perhaps one of them keen on nudism—the trip offers an opportunity for the other partner to try it out.

Everything to Sea chooses venues, routes and destinations where nudity is acceptable, at least discreetly. “We tell people, do not leave the villa naked. On boats, we choose our routes to avoid people, and if another boat is approaching, we tend to stay away from them. If another boat is close, we ask our travellers to cover up with a sarong down there,”

When it comes to finding nudist-welcoming venues, it’s not a problem at all in France or Spain. “There’s nothing to talk about except to reassure them that our guests are not going to walk out on the street naked,” says Power. For Asian venues like Bali, Thailand and the Komodo islands, the approach varies from country to country. “We sometimes need to talk gingerly about the subject, but we’re not hiding anything. There’s a full discussion, and the people we work with understand what we’re doing.”