I don't know about everyone else, but being cooped up indoors has me yearning for traveling and freedom. This year I was supposed to be in three amazing cfnm destinations for work - San Diego (Blacks), Maui (Little Beach), and Barcelona (Mar Bella and San Sebastia). Now it looks like I won't be traveling anywhere until the pandemic settles down. I figured I may as well reminisce instead about the "good old days" when we could go outside, and review a few less-well-known places from travel in years past. Let's start with Sitges.
Sitges
Sitges is a small coastal town about 35km or 30 minutes on the train South of Barcelona. Sitges has about 30,000 residents, but during peak tourist times it feels like many more, including thousands of day visitors from Barcelona. It has 17 beaches, some very beautiful, which is the main draw. There are also several large gay festivals during which the demographics change significantly. I've been in (I think) June 2009 and June/July in 2016.
Like all of Spain, a nude beach in Sitges is wherever someone chooses to go nude, and these can vary by the day. But there are three beaches where nudity is more common, of which really only one (Balmins) is good for cfnm. To the south west of the town, the beach at La Atlantida attracts lots of nudists, but doesn't have crowds of clothed people, so is more of a nfnm situation. Even further to the west is del Muerto, which is more nmnm. In the other direction, to the east of the town, I have heard that d'Aiguadolç tolerates nudity, but when I went it seemed 100% clothed. That leaves Platja del Balmins, an urban beach that is just to the east of the main beaches but still packed with tourists during summer.
Getting there
Balmins is an easy 15-20 minute walk from the train station. Parking is notoriously difficult in Sitges to best get the train from Barcelona (you don't need a car to get around Sitges). Finding the beach is easy: walk toward the water, then head east, and stop once you see naked people. If you see lots of small sailing boats, you're at the marina and have gone 5 minutes too far. The beach is backed by cliffs and access is via a winding concrete road/ramp at the far (east) end. There is no access from the west.
The three bays
Balmins is split by the cliffs into three bays. At low tide you can reach all three walking along the sand. At high tide you will get your feet wet getting to the second and will have to climb over the rocks to get to the third. The tide seems to come in a long way so the beach goes from being wide and spacious to quite small. The water quality tends to be better than Barcelona, but it is quite variable and sometimes rubbish washes up after a storm.
When I have visited in June and July, the first bay was mostly clothed, with probably 5%-20% nudity depending on the day. I'd say maybe 200 people in the first bay, which feels busy but not packed. I've heard that its more nude out of season, but this is the bay that gets the most textile tourists in the summer months. Each time I've been there, the first bay has had approximately 50% or more women, but I've also heard that during the gay festivals the demographics change to 90% men at all beaches. This bay has a small cafe/kiosk (la Caleta). Between my first visit in 2009 and my visit in about 2016 they had added a sign saying that clothing was required while in the cafe, which is great because it serves to reinforce that clothing is not technically required anywhere that isn't the cafe. There is also a shower right at the entrance to the bay where the concrete ramp meets the sand (similar in style to the ones in Barcelona). Another change between my two visits is that when I first went there were lots of mainly asian women offering massages on the beach - it can be fun being massaged naked out on the sand by a fully clothed asian women, surrounded by clothed tourists. Unfortunately at my most recent visit, the massage ladies have been banned, and instead there was a more "official" massage station on the first bay with privacy screens.
The second bay was almost all male, almost all gay, and about 50% nude. Its much smaller but was busier, with maybe 100 people closely packed. The third bay was much smaller still, mixed genders, a lot of couples, and almost 100% nude, with maybe 20-30 people at the busiest time. The second and third bays are overlooked from the streets above, but at such a distance that you don't feel watched.
Verdict
I think of Barcelona as one of the most intense beach cfnm experiences, and Sitges is definitely not quite as exposing as, say, showering next to be boulevard on San Sebastia beach in Barcelona. Its a much less confronting experience, and the clothed beachgoers tend to be bikini-clad rather than the fully clothed girls often seen looking in Barcelona. But if you're in Barcelona for several days and want to try something different its definitely worth a look, and with only a 30 minute train ride, what's there to lose? Its definitely not as intense, but a beautiful beach with the potential to be naked, with enough other nudes to know you're in the right place, but surrounded mostly by clothed people and about half of those female.
From a cfnm perspective, its really the showers and the first bay that are interesting and you can ignore the other two. Go for a swim, a walk along the shore, lay on your towel, go grab a shower, and repeat. Its a lazy afternoon in a picturesque setting, with a bit of cfnm thrown in.
--- Now, where to review next?
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