BeNeLux

A Brief Introduction , The Netherlands , Belgium , Luxembourg , Saunas in BeNeLux

A Brief Introduction       [ ↑ ]

←  Click the map for a more detailed view. BeNeLux is a contraction for Be lgium, the Ne therlands and Lux embourg, neighboring countries that are often grouped together due to their relatively small sizes and intertwined cultures. These three countries, along with parts of northern France and western Germany, are often called the Low Countries since much of this part of Europe is low-lying delta terrain of several rivers that empty into the North Sea. The BeNeLux countries collectively cover about 75,000 square kilometers, which is comparable to the combined areas of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. About 56% of the land area of BeNeLux is the Netherlands, 41% is Belgium and the remaining 3-4% is Luxembourg—a small, landlocked country that is a bit too large to be considered a microstate but has a land area typical of a U.S. county. The language of the Netherlands is Dutch, and the Dutch word for the country is Nederland . The Netherlands is sometimes referred to as Holland, a term generally disfavored since Holland includes just two of the country's twelve provinces. Belgium is a country that is linguistically and culturally divided. The northern half of the country (roughly) is mostly Dutch speaking, and this region is known as Flanders (or Vlaanderen in Dutch). The southern half of the country is French speaking, and this region is known as Wallonia (or Wallonie in French). The capital, Brussels, is a predominantly French-speaking city that is not considered part of Flanders or Wallonia. Belgium is België in Dutch and Belgique in French. While Belgium is a marriage of French and Dutch, Luxembourg is more of a marriage of French and German. Luxembourg has three official languages: German, French and Luxembourgish, a Germanic language spoken by less than half a million people, almost all of whom live in Luxembourg. The name of the country is the same in English and French, while in German the "o" is dropped. In Luxembourgish, the country is called Lëtzebuerg . The Netherlands is the most populous of the BeNeLux countries with about 16.7 million people, while Belgium has a population of about 11 million and Luxembourg just half a million. Dutch is by far the most important language to BeNeLux considered collectively since it is the first language of about 81% of the combined population of the three countries.

The Netherlands       [ ↑ ]

The Netherlands is the most densely populated country in Europe (not counting microstates like Monaco and Malta). Most of the population live at, below or just slightly above sea level, and a good bit of the country's land has been reclaimed from the North Sea by an extensive system of polders and dikes. This country famous for its windmills and tulips is also quite well known as a bastion of liberalism and tolerance, so it should be no surprise that the Netherlands offers a wealth of places for naturists. In fact, there are at least 100 documented nude beaches in the country. To grasp how many nude beaches that is for such a small country, consider that 41 of the 50 U.S. states are larger than the Netherlands. Of the 100 or so nude beaches, about 30 of them are either along the mainland North Sea coastline or on islands in the far south of the country that are bridged to the mainland; about 10 are on the West Frisian Islands, which are a chain of islands along the northern coast that are popular with vacationers and not bridged to the mainland; and the rest are located along lakes, ponds and other waterways of the interior. Many of these places can be reached without a car since the Netherlands has an extensive public transit network. ( This website allows you to plan your journey between any two locations in the entire country.) In addition to nude beaches, the Netherlands offers a number of naturist campgrounds and private-membership naturist associations with club grounds that are open to non-members, and the country also has a wealth of saunas where swimwear is not worn. We have chosen not to detail naturist sites in the Netherlands for a simple reason: It has already been done, and we cannot do it any better. The absolute go-to source for naturism in the Netherlands is:       www.naaktstrandje.nl The name of the website means "little nude beach." Naaktstrand is a compound word of naakt (naked) + strand (beach), while je is a diminutive suffix. An alternative front page of this website that is easier to remember for English speakers is www.nudistbeaches.nl . Naaktstrandje is an extraordinary resource that we believe is the very best naturist site on the internet that is devoted to a single country. It is multilingual and highly detailed with fantastic photos and an accompanying Google Earth file you can download.   Tips for Navigating Naaktstrandje.nl : The default homepage is in Dutch. The most detailed pages on the site pertain to nude beaches, and most of these pages are translated into English, German and French. However, there are some other types of pages that are available only in Dutch, so you will need to navigate the Dutch version of the website if you want to explore naturist possibilities other than nude beaches. Assume you start at the front page of the English version of the website, which you can get to either by going to www.naaktstrandje.nl and clicking on the British flag icon or just by going to www.nudistbeaches.nl . You'll see options for the twelve provinces of the Netherlands, starting with Friesland. Listings are sorted by province. Click on any province and you'll see one or more categories of nude beach. For example, nude beach listings for Friesland are divided between mainland listings and island listings. Click on any beach and there is a sub-page for general information ( Algemeen in Dutch), a sub-page with photos and a "Route" sub-page that includes the GPS coordinates along with a detailed Google Map, many of which have placemarks for parking, bus stops, eateries, restrooms, etc. The English version of each province page contains links mostly to designated nude beaches, while many unofficial nude beaches and other categories of naturist entities are omitted. To see what else is available in a particular province, just go to any province page and click on the Dutch flag icon near the top of the page. It's the flag with horizontal red, white and blue stripes. On the Dutch version of each province page, you'll see several more categories. The word Gedoogd means "tolerated," and these are unofficial nude beaches. (Some are included on the English version; others aren't.) Camping is a category for naturist campgrounds that are open to the public, while Verenigingsterreinen (which means "club sites") is a category for private-membership naturist associations with club grounds, some of which allow day visits and camping by non-members. Naturistische activiteiten ("naturist activities") is a category for entities such as naturist boat excursions, while Naaktzwemmen ("naked swimming") is a category for nude swimming possibilities. (Most of these listings are indoor textile swimming pools that offer occasional—usually weekly—nude swimming hours.) With a little determination and assistance from Google Translate , you can get a bigger picture of what is available to naturists in the Netherlands. Going back to the English or Dutch front page of the website, click on the Google Maps link near the bottom to open a page (in Dutch) with a complete map of all naturist entities detailed on the site (except for naturist activities). These entities are coded by color: yellow for official nude beaches ( officieel naaktstrand ); lavender for unofficial, tolerated nude beaches ( gedoogd naaktstrand ); green for private-membership naturist club grounds ( naturisten terrein ); red for naturist camping ( naturisten camping ); and blue for swimming establishments with periodic nude swimming hours ( naaktzwemmen ). You can deselect some of the options and press the "start" button to view only certain types of places on the map. At the top of the page, there is a Strandjes in Google Earth link you can click to download a Google Earth file. The Google Earth file includes all nude beaches (official and tolerated) but no other types of listings, and while the text of placemarks is in Dutch only, the symbols make it easy to figure it all out even without knowing the language. The Dutch front page of the website also includes Dutch-only options not available on the English version (links, about this site, weather, news, etc.). Naaktstrandje is a phenomenal website that gives a nearly exhaustive overview of naturist possibilities in the Netherlands. The only places of potential interest to naturists that are not included on the website are saunas, of which there are quite a few in the Netherlands. However, we include saunas in the Netherlands in the European Saunas section of this website.

Belgium       [ ↑ ]

Belgium's North Sea coastline is about 65 kilometers long, and all of it is within the Dutch-speaking region of the country known as Flanders ( Vlaanderen ). Nude beaches began to take hold in the coastal countries on either side of Belgium as far back as the early 70's, but all last century Belgians had to cross the border either to France or the Netherlands to visit a coastal nude beach. It wasn't until 2000 that Belgium got its own official nude beach, when a short stretch of beach in the town of Bredene was designated for nudists. It has been an immensely popular nude beach since its inception. The beach at Bredene is the only designated coastal nude beach in Belgium, and to the best of our knowledge the country lacks any well-established interior nude beaches, either designated or tolerated, which puts it in stark contrast to the Netherlands. The best source of information about naturism in Belgium is www.naaktstrandje.nl , which is the website described in detail in the previous section. However, the information pertaining to Belgium is available only in Dutch. On the front page of the website, click on België . There is extensive information about the nude beach at Bredene that you can appreciate and comprehend through symbols and photos without knowing a word of Dutch. There are also links for several private-membership naturist clubs ( Verenigingsterreinen ) in Belgium. Another source of information about Belgian naturism is FBN , the Belgian naturist federation wesbite, which is available in Dutch and French.

Luxembourg       [ ↑ ]

Luxembourg covers less territory than the U.S. state of Rhode Island, but nonetheless it has two naturist camping possibilites: Camping Reenert in Heiderscheid ( Map It ) and Camping Bleesbruck near Diekirch ( Map It ). Camping Reenert is across the road from a larger associated textile camping center, while Camping Bleesbruck has a small naturist area adjacent to its larger textile area. Both websites are multilingual (German, English, Dutch and French). A few naturist club options can be found at FLN , the Luxembourg naturist federation website. There is also a nude beach possibility detailed on the German-language website Nacktbaden.de .

Saunas in BeNeLux       [ ↑ ]
	Mixed-gender saunas where nudity is standard practice are quite common in BeNeLux. Such saunas are found throughout the Netherlands as well as in the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. There are also a few saunas in Luxembourg. These saunas are detailed in European Saunas section of this website.