You don’t have to be naked on the beaches of Bowen, Australia, but you can be. This is a town with a very well-signed nude beach.

Indeed, the town of Bowen, Australia, has the best-signed nude beach I’ve ever seen.

They even write about this clothing-optional beach — technically called Coral Bay (located just up the cape from Grays Bay toward Horseshoe Bay, if you’re going on a quest) — in the town marketing materials. It’s impossible to lose your way, though this particular sign pointed me straight out into the ocean:

There’s no missing the beach once you’re finally there, either — the naturalists here really like their spray paint.

To call this a “beach” is pretty generous…

… because it’s more like a giant pile of rocks:

But what rocks these are! There are long, flat rocks for to lie out on in the warm sun, and person-sized rocks to clamber over, and tall, wide rocks to slip underneath for shade. I am enamored of the rocks of Bowen.

These are wonderful boulders, filled with nooks and crannies, balancing majestically as they tumble over one another …

… and on out into the ocean.

I have no idea how long the clothing-optional area runs, but I walked out along the bay as far as I could. (I have since been told that I only managed to reach the rocky bay before the sandy nude beach, but I never found the beach itself. Oops!) In any case, the view from the end of the cape is stunning…

… and I enjoyed every bit of the nude beach experience.

Curious about more clothing-optional travel spots? Read about my beach adventures in Maine and Europe.