Nudists on cruises - The right to bare arms, legs and other body parts

AMERICANS are, on the whole, much more squeamish about public nudity than Europeans. Even a toddler frolicking naked on a sunny beach attracts disapproving frowns. No federal law bars public nudity, but plenty of state and local rules do. Last summer, for example, New York began enforcing a state law banning public nudity, nixing the state’s last remaining nudist haunt on Fire Island. Only a handful of beaches in America officially allow folks to bob away in the buff.

Yet as National Nude Recreation Week begins on July 7th, American naturists are grinning and baring it. Tourism by the tan-line-averse generates more than $440m a year, according to the American Association for Nude Recreation (AANR). Early nudists may have been happy gathering at campsites, but today they like to be pampered. Of the more than 250 nudist and clothing-optional resorts and clubs sprinkled around the country, the small mom-and-pop operations are folding, while the survivors are going upmarket, says Susan Weaver of AANR. The Cypress Cove Nudist Resort & Spa in Florida, for example, began in the 1960s as “basically a lakefront with a windscreen,” says Ted Hadley, its owner. Now it is a 300-acre resort, with hot tubs, restaurants, and a spa.

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