If yes, … what was it like? What were the other people like? Were you embarrassed? Would you do it again?
A couple of hours from San Fransciso there are hot springs that have a nudist retreat built around them (Harbin hot springs is the name of it).
I’ve not stayed there overnight but have gone several times for the day. It is wonderful! I’m a naturally modest person - I wear a towel from the lockers to the shower in the gym for example - but I have never felt a moments discomfort at this retreat. One thing that makes it wonderful is how hot it is there, and I lovelovelove the heat, so I really enjoy lounging around in the altogether poolside.
The other people come in all shapes and sizes and there is an understanding that it is rude to gawk. I never felt like I had to make an effort to look someone in the eye…because let’s face it boobies etc aren’t all that riveting when there are 40 pairs within eyeshot.
I would go again and in fact hope to this summer.
Back about 10 years ago my husband and I went a few times to a nudist (or “naturist”) camp that wasn’t too far from where we lived.
It was pretty much like a campground. You could come for the day as we did, but a lot of people camped in tents and trailers. There was a pool, paths through the woods, a hot tub, an air hockey table, sand volleyball, stuff like that. The first time I went it was really quite exhilirating. The thrill of being naked outdoors …with people around. The naked people thing wasn’t as exciting as you might think. There really was a "don’t gawk"vibe, but I did check everyone out discretely, as I’m sure everyone else did. The fact is most people’s bodies can’t hold a candle to what we usually get to see in the media world, so they weren’t all that exciting.
I didn’t feel stared at, wasn’t schmoozed by guys. I never felt embarrassed.
But here’s the thing. I don’t like the sun, so the all-over-body-tan sunbathing thing was out for me. That was a big part of it for a lot of people. They would all be hanging out by the pool and I would loll around in the the shade of a tree on a towel reading.
And, I DO NOT like going without a bra. My breasts are just too big and joggly for it. Volleyball was right out, and even walking around was fairly irritating, so that pretty much left lolling. I could’ve worn a bra, there was nothing in the rules against it, but it would’ve felt weird. Plus my bras are pretty ratty.
So, in the end, it just wasn’t fun enough for me to keep going back.
I’m not one of the SDMB women. So shoot me.
At 21 I was on a clothes-optional rural/suburban community in Topanga Canyon California, and within a very short time as a newcomer I just got used to peoples male and female being without clothes whenever they felt like it. By “got used to it” I mean it ceased to be something conceptually dogeared as sexually provocative. On my third or fourth day there I was in the sauna (nude, of course) and one of the females came in and stripped and sat on a bench. We talked about the rules about getting cultivating done before noon and whether or not the rule made sense and whether or not a certain bigmouthed guy named Phelps was going to make a scene when we spoke out against it. Then the heat drove us off conversation and we just sat there roasting. There was nothing sexual about it. Sexuality was present aplenty (I got devirginated there, as a matter of fact) but it had nothing to do with absence or presence of clothes.
Anyhow, I’m thinking you’ll get used to it and the folks you run across will be used to it and it won’t take long before it’ll cease to be a loaded situation in your mind and you’ll have a great time.
If you have questions about nudist resorts, you may want to ask plnnr who has recently started a thread on the subject, Ask the Naked Guy Who Is Wearing Clothes Right Now.