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Top topless beaches 2005
First-rate beaches where bikini tops are optional

Forbes.com
By Christina Valhouli

Updated: 9:04 p.m. ET March 28, 2005The French are credited with many great inventions, such as the bicycle, pasteurization, the barometer and, more recently, the 36-hour work week, but one cultural contribution that rarely makes it into the history books is sunbathing au naturel.

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Of course, the French were not the first people to frolic on the beach in a state of semi-undress--the Polynesians after all have been doing it for millennia. But what the French did was popularize it, to make it, as they make so many things, chic.

This laissez-faire attitude towards topless tanning is largely due to French actress Brigitte Bardot, who came to embody (pun intended) the sexy, laid-back spirit of Saint-Tropez on France's Cote d'Azur. In 1952, a two-piece bathing suit that would be considered modest by today's standards was then seen as being controversial, but Bardot and other young starlets such as Ursula Andress would pose for photographers at Cannes wearing the tiniest bikinis imaginable.

By the 1960s, it was common to see starlets tanning topless on the beaches and yachts in and around the Riviera. Today, even though many people still prefer to keep their suits in place, practically every beach along Europe's long Mediterranean coastline is clothing-optional.


With a few exceptions, one place where bikini tops remains firmly in place is the U.S. Avant garde fashion designer Rudi Gernreich made waves in 1964 when he created the topless bathing suit, which was modeled by his wife Peggy Moffett. Although many magazines picked up the story and ran an image, according to the Web site BikiniScience.com, Life magazine refused to publish the full photograph with the explanation that, "This is a family magazine, and naked breasts are only allowed if the woman is an aborigine."

Fast forward about 40 years, and some American beaches, such as Miami's South Beach, as well as Black's Beach in San Diego, have adopted a more casual approach to toplessness. There are also dozens of naturalist resorts in the U.S.--"naturalists" are full nudists--but in many places public nudity is still prohibited by law and carries a major fine. Throughout most of Europe, South America and parts of the Caribbean, it's a very different story--at least on the beach.

Unsurprisingly, taking it off is taking off with the travel industry. The Kissimmee, Fla.-based American Association for Nude Recreation estimates that nude travel is a $400 million global industry--up from $300 million in 2001.

Below is a list of some of the best beaches to perfect the no-tan-line tan, whether you prefer to take it off, or take it in. Remember to bring plenty of SPF and watch out for people lurking with telephoto lenses.

© 2005 Forbes.com

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I notice while Forbes gave a positive view of topfree beaches in print, they only show a woman' back so American morality has been spared.

They are a mag that is sold at stores nation wide (and have a large conservative readership) and don't want a store to decide to drop that issue or put it behind the counter with the Playboys because because some 35 year old YUPPY with a 5 year old son got all offended.

Oh I didn't really expect them to show breasts Melissa. Although I can remember in the late '70s and early '80s a number of general circulation magazines, especially women's magazines like Self, Cosmopolitan, Vogue were showing bare breasts in artwork and ads as European magazines do. Then the "Moral Majority" people began raising a fuss and that was the end of that. It will take a lot more than a article about topfree beaches to change America's breast phobia.

And the picture they do have gets the point across.

Well I don't know about that JB.
For all we know that might have been a long-haired thin-waisted flat-chested guy sitting on the beach.
(Back in the hippie days- there were some I was never too sure about just looking at their backs!)

That does not look like any guy I have ever seen.

I don't know, those look like pretty broad shoulders.
I bet you didn't even go to Woodstock, JB!

No Woodstock for me.
All I can remember is a song about Woodstock.

Recently there was a billboard add pulled because it displayed a topless 12yo. People complained that the model looked like a young girl and was therefore obscene even though it was officially confirmed that the model was male. Because it was possible for the image to be interpreted as a topfree, 12yo girl it was a violation of public morality. Perceived immorality is now the same as real immorality.

It was a boy? Where did this happen?

How people have come to believe that a 12yo without a shirt is immoral is so weird.

12 year old? Now a days people even think a 3 year old girl is obscene!
When I was a kid in the '50s it was common for young girls to run topfree like their brothers.
You sure don't see this today.
But I didn't know it was getting to the point they are even censoring boys!- will the idiocy ever end?

There is a psychiatric diagnosis called 'obsessive-compulsive disorder.' Here we have a pefect example.

We have so many people sitting on the edge waiting to find something to raise a complaint about it getting to a National pass time. Some of them used to sit by their window with their binoculars and their party line telephone trying to find some dirt or gossip so they can call the law or their friends. Now they have expanded from neighborhood to National. They raise so much h--- that they have the law makers, FCC, T V people running scared trying to keep them still. President Bush has already told them to change channel or look the way. Other people need to tell them something similar, I have other words but??????????

Walmart is the worst offender in this regard. It has even required that the cover of Redbook Magazine (!!!) be hidden on its stands.

Rather than boycott the stores that take Redbook off the shelves, it would be better for people who like the magazine to ask them for it. If enough people do that, they will have it there for people to buy. They are keeping stuff off the shelves because they believe that putting it there will hurt business and that is not censorship.

soon Architectural Digest will have to be hidden because some editor calls the exterior of a building "sexy"!