The American Association for Nude Recreation (www.aanr.com) defines a nakation as:
“1. A clothes-free interlude from one’s customary duties, as for recreation or rest; a holiday. 2. The part of your vacation you’ll brag to friends about.” Here are some of the growing nakation options.
PHOTOS: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
Nude Resorts:
Roughly an hour south of Cancun, Mexico, the all-inclusive Hidden Beach Resort offers 42 oceanfront suites with champagne upon arrival and special touches like rose petals tossed on the bed at turndown. In addition to the pool, beach and hot tub, au natural amenities include nude dining, nude bars and a nude disco (+1-888-754-3907; www.hiddenbeachresort.com). Rates begin at US$215 per person a night based on two people sharing an oceanfront junior suite.
The Sea Mountain Inn in Desert Hot Springs, California, is a so-called nude lifestyle resort with an emphasis on “upscale adults only pleasures.” Rooms start at US$269 a night and offer Asian decor, Egyptian bed linens and mineral water pumped into the showers. No single men allowed (+1-877-928-2827; www.sea-mountaininn.com).
In Spain’s Canary Islands, the all-inclusive Occidental Grand Fuerteventura has 38 rooms set aside exclusively for nude guests. The rooms share an au natural swimming pool and Jacuzzi and start at US$105 a person a night (+34-928-873-600; www.occidentalhotels.com).
Nude Cruises:
Bare Necessities Tour and Travel is offering several naked cruises including a nearly sold-out weeklong sailing in February to ports in Florida, Jamaica and Mexico. Passengers must board and disembark fully clothed and dress for dinner in the dining room. Prices start at US$1,949 for a cabin with a balcony on the upper deck (1-800-743-0405, www.bare-necessities.com).
Castaways Travel is selling a sail down the Danube in the nude, from Budapest to Vienna to Nuremberg, July 20 to July 27, on a 75-cabin riverboat. Rates are from US$2,199 to US$2,799 a person (+800-470-2020,
www.danubeadultcruise.com).
Nude Flight:
A German travel company, OssiUrlaub, is offering an all-nude flight from Erfurt, Germany, to the Baltic Sea resort of Usedom in July. Note to non-German speakers: ask for Sandra. Cost: US$777 a person (1-49-361-6006-520; www.ossiurlaub.de).
May 11 to May 18 The original Taichung Railway Station was long thought to have been completely razed. Opening on May 15, 1905, the one-story wooden structure soon outgrew its purpose and was replaced in 1917 by a grandiose, Western-style station. During construction on the third-generation station in 2017, workers discovered the service pit for the original station’s locomotive depot. A year later, a small wooden building on site was determined by historians to be the first stationmaster’s office, built around 1908. With these findings, the Taichung Railway Station Cultural Park now boasts that it has
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
The latest Formosa poll released at the end of last month shows confidence in President William Lai (賴清德) plunged 8.1 percent, while satisfaction with the Lai administration fared worse with a drop of 8.5 percent. Those lacking confidence in Lai jumped by 6 percent and dissatisfaction in his administration spiked up 6.7 percent. Confidence in Lai is still strong at 48.6 percent, compared to 43 percent lacking confidence — but this is his worst result overall since he took office. For the first time, dissatisfaction with his administration surpassed satisfaction, 47.3 to 47.1 percent. Though statistically a tie, for most
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and