by Sonya Nicole

With its thousand miles of sandy shorelines and warming sunshine year-round, Florida has to have scores of nude beaches. Right?

Well, it depends upon your definition. When I went through a tan-line-free stage I thought finding a "nude beach" merely meant finding a stretch of sand where I could discreetly bare it. This usually meant a beach well off the flip-flopped patch.

That's pretty much the case in Florida, with the exception of one sanctioned nude beach and several private resort clubs. If you want to go nude elsewhere, you have to be plain-out choosy and careful. Though a number of beaches around the state have earned a reputation as skinny-dipping beaches, one-by-one they've been, shall we say, redressed by local law.

The compilation below lists our one official public nude beach, a few choices where you can try at your own risk, and some private nudist or naturist, as some say, clubs and resorts.

For more information, contact the American Association for Nude Recreation AANR in Kissimmee (www.aanr.com 800-TRY-NUDE) or the Florida Association for Nude Recreation FANR (comprising of 21 clubs in Florida)., www.fanr.com.

SOUTHEAST FLORIDA
LEGAL NUDE BEACH
Haulover Beach, 10800 Collins Ave., North Miami Beach, 305/947-3525.
Almost a mile of beach north of the northernmost parking lot is sanctioned as a clothing-optional beach. Patrollers arrest gawkers.

REMOTE BEACHES FREQUENTED BY NUDISTS
South Beach, Ocean Dr., Miami Beach.
The safest non-sanctioned nude beach, its popularity with European models has turned certain parts into an unofficial clothing-optional beach.

NUDIST RESORTS a.k.a. "Landed Clubs"
Seminole Health Club, Davie, 954-473-0231.

NORTHEAST FLORIDA
REMOTE BEACHES FREQUENTED BY NUDISTS
Playalinda Beach, Canaveral National Seashore.
Until about four years ago, the north end of this out-of-the-way beach was designated clothing-optional. That's when county officials began enforcing no-nudity on federal land. The legality of their actions will be tied up in courts for years. Meanwhile, arrests have been made. Naturists are hopeful today with the appointment of a new county parks director. Bare at your own risk.

NUDIST RESORTS a.k.a. "Landed Clubs"
Sunnier Palms, Fort Pierce, 561/468-8512.

Sunny Sands Resort, Pierson near Daytona Beach, 904/749-2233.
RVs & tents, rental units, home sites, restaurant, bar, hot tub, pool, volleyball.

Sunsport Gardens, Loxahatchee, 800/551-7217 or 561/793-0423.

NUDIST CLUBS a.k.a. "Unlanded Clubs"
Central Florida Naturists, Merritt Island, 407/381-0637.
Formerly Space Coast Naturists. Dedicated to designation of Playalinda Beach as clothing optional.

Northeast Florida Naturists, Jacksonville, 904/NFN-7900.
More than 100 members.

FLORIDA PANHANDLE
REMOTE BEACHES FREQUENTED BY NUDISTS
The Panhandle boasts many remote stretches where skinny-dipping is largely ignored, when done with discretion. Naturists are losing some ground due to development, parks and local government.

East end of Gulf Beach Drive, St. George Island
East of the last access, a four-wheel drive road takes getaway-beachers and fishermen to the expanding sands at the pass. Bare with care.

St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge, 850/653-8808.
Private boaters will find privacy here most of the year.

Santa Rosa Beach
The farther you roam from parking lots, the better! At all Panhandle beaches you could be cited for nudity.

Eglin Air Force Base Reserve, east of Navarre Beach.
Another county-level attempt to squelch nudity was made here. Naturists still frequent the beach, always ready to dress in the presence of patrollers, who do come around, but not on a sudden, surprise-visit basis.

The Gulf Islands National Seashore, Pensacola Beach, 850/934-2600.
At Santa Rosa Day Use Area and Fort Pickens National Park, long stretches of deserted beach look inviting to naturists. Be ecology-kind and resist walking over dunes to find your private stretch.

Perdido Key Gulf Islands National Seashore Day Use Area, Route 292/Johnson Beach Road, Perdido Key, Pensacola, 850/492-0912.
You can continue to walk along the beach for 6 miles after the road ends.

NUDIST RESORTS a.k.a. "Landed Clubs"
Riviera Naturist Resort, Pace, 850/994-3665.

Sunburst Resort, Milton, 850/675-6807.

NUDIST CLUBS a.k.a. "Unlanded Clubs"
Panhandle Free Beaches, Navarre, 850/939-8822.
Fights against the county's attempt to close down the beach to nudists. It schedules beach clean-ups and other civic-minded events.

Tallahassee Bare-Devils, Tallahassee, 850/847-8537.
More than 100 members who lease a private lake every weekend and plan trips to secluded wilderness areas.

CENTRAL FLORIDA
NUDIST RESORTS a.k.a. "Landed Clubs"
Cypress Cove, Kissimmee, 407/933-5870.
A popular resort that owns an entire lake with beach, motel rooms, apartments, RV and tent camping, and a bar and grill named "Cheeks".

WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA
REMOTE BEACHES FREQUENTED BY NUDISTS
Unbridged Islands. Your best bets along the Pinellas Suncoast are on remote islands, such as those near Tarpon Springs and Dunedin.

NUDIST RESORTS a.k.a. "Landed Clubs"
Caliente Resorts, Land O' Lakes, 800/326-7731 or 813/996-3700.

Club Paradise, Land O' Lakes, 800/237-2226 outside Florida or 813/949-9327.

Gulf Coast Resort, Hudson, 813/868-1061.
Rooms, rental trailers, tent & RV camping, pool, hot tub, playground.

The Island Group, Land O'Lakes, 813/996-3289.
On Lake Dupree. Furnished cottages, pool, Jacuzzi, saunas, playground, workout room.

Lake Como, Lutz, 813/949-1810.

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA
REMOTE BEACHES FREQUENTED BY NUDISTS
Sanibel Island.
The north end of Bowman's Beach, at the island's north end, was unofficially clothing-optional until the 1980s, when local police began arresting even topless toddlers. Sanibel Naturist Aleta Adam tells me her group uses a stretch of Sanibel Beach "where we're not hassled too much," but wouldn't pinpoint it. "When you start publishing this information, it brings out the nut cases," she said.

NUDIST CLUBS a.k.a. "Unlanded Clubs"
Sanibel Naturists, Fort Myers, 941/995-6833.
It uses a piece of designated beach on unbridged Upper Captiva Island as well as on Sanibel Island.

Southern Exposure, Naples, 941/643-3022.
Meet at a member's private home on a lake with beach, sunning deck, hot tub, picnic area, petanque.