Uruguay naturist beaches

Playa Chihuahua is Uruguay's best-known naturist beach, on the Río de la Plata coast of Maldonado department, about 15-20 km west of Punta del Este, between the El Potrero stream and the small, pine-shaded resort of Chihuahua near Laguna del Sauce airport. Nudism here goes back to the 1960s, when Argentine visitors with land nearby began using the isolated shore; in the 1980s the Coast Guard raided it after press coverage, but in 2000 the Maldonado government and the national tourism ministry authorised it as a naturist beach. In 2012 the Intendencia fixed the nude zone's limits: from the mouth of the El Potrero stream in the west to an imaginary southward line along El Foque street in the east, with the dunes as the inland limit, after the national naturist association protested that a first draft cut off the busiest part. Within that zone nudity is optional but the norm. The beach is wide, soft golden sand backed by dunes and maritime pines, facing calm estuary water. In January and February it draws 2,000-3,000 people a day, mostly Uruguayan and Argentine naturists; a naturist hotel operates nearby, and summer kiosks and banners have made it busier.

Playa La Sirena is the official naturist beach of Rocha department on Uruguay's Atlantic coast, a stretch of open ocean beach about 2-2.5 km north of the small resort of Aguas Dulces, in Castillos municipality. It opened as a naturist beach in 2012 with the authorisation of the departmental government, becoming Uruguay's second after Playa Chihuahua in Maldonado. The beach is wide, with fine pale sand and open Atlantic water, and is backed by dunes with native dune vegetation, small marshes, ponds and stands of pine and acacia. Signposts mark where the naturist section begins. It is clothing-optional rather than nude-mandatory, though the department suggests full nudity on the sand. There is no infrastructure at all: no lifeguard, no food, no toilets or shade structures, so it suits visitors who want a quiet, natural beach. Outside the summer season the surrounding woods are home to capybaras and foxes, and coastal birds are present year-round.