Jack Branswell, canada.com

Nude beaches. As Austin Powers would say...Yeah baby!  When the weather hot it's a natural reflex to want to shed some clothes. People are like cats, some shed more than others. For those of you wanting to ditch all or most of your garb,  we're bringing you some suggestions for finding the world's best nude beaches.

All sophomoric humour aside, there is a growing interest in nude/topless beaches. Search the web a little and it's not hard to find Top 10 lists of clothes optional places. What canada.com has done is a meta-search and compared lists. So call this the list of list. It doesn't claim to be scienfitic, but last time I checked no one was doing scientific research on nude beach lists...

So plant your butt somewhere -clothed or otherwise - and check out out list:

10) Wreck Beach, Vancouver

photo by El Gallo

The name has nothing to do with alcohol, it's about all the shipwrecks that used to lay on the beach. These days it's students from nearby UBC and other care-free let it all hang out West Coasters. Not to be missed is Vendor's Row. Careful where you pull your stash of money from, it may or may not be acceptable to the vendors.

9) Red Beach, Greece 

Being naked everywhere but the dinning room is perfectly acceptable in this area of beautiful blue seas and white cottages.

8)  Haulover Beach, Florida

Haulover Beach, Florida is smack in the middle of Hollywood and Miami Beach. Euro, Canuck and Yankee nudist haul their bare asses over here.

7) Red, White and Blue Beach, Santa Cruz, California

It may sound like a French beach, given it's colours, but this area just outside of Santa Cruz is a favourite with Bay-area folk and it's on private land, so it's really laissez-faire so long as you are cool with the other guests.

6) Little Beach, Maui, Hawaii

Hawaii doesn't officially allow nude beaches but here they turn a blind eye here, or perhaps they don't...
Anyhow, it's Hawaii, you're bare-naked, what's not to like? Imagine the music to Hawaii 5-O playing....Beach girls, na, na,na, fun...

5) Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Ocho Rios, the Couples Resort has it's own nudist island, a good swim offshore, but the rest of the complex has a dress code. Bummer.

4) Hedonism, or Hedonism II, Negril, Jamaica

More Jamaica in the buff. Ya man. Located in Negril, home to the famous seven-miles of beautiful white sand beach, the whole area is clothing optional, though it also has a prude section. But hey, who wants to sit there and get that label?

3) Praia do Pinho, Cambori, Brazil

What would a Top 10 beach list be without Brazil? The country is home to some of the best bodies that medicine can buy? Praia do Pinho is in the southern part of the country.

2) Samurai Beach, Australia

chadreschly Flickr

Samurai Beach, the annual nude Olympics are held here. It gives new definition to the three-legged race... Somehow nudism and sports (except perhaps for one...) don't seem to mix Homer, but the Aussie's love the sun and sports. Several other Australian beaches show up on lists including Swanbourne Beach in Perth. The country also has tons of beaches were going topless is completely acceptable, including Manly and Bonzai Beach. 

1) Montalivet, France

Montalivet, is where many people claim the nudist movement started. Personally, I thought it started as soon as man evolved from apes, but what do I know.

A few friendly reminders for naked beaches:

• Gawkers, picture-taking and lewd behaviour will quickly get you tossed off a nude beach.
• A lot of nude beaches are divided between family, couples/singles and gay areas. Figure out where you belong before you plant your towel and naked butt!
• Nude or topless beaches frown on people hitting the beach bar in the buff. You get the picture...
• It's wise to use a lot of sun block to cover things that aren't normally exposed to the sun. A sun burn in those areas, would be, well, OUCH!