Playa Chihuahua, Punta del Este

Playa Chihuahua is the naturist beach of Uruguay, the established one, set in the sheltered Portezuelo bay a short drive west of Punta del Este. People have come here to swim and sunbathe without clothes since the 1960s, and the beach was formally recognised as a naturist beach in 2000, with the Maldonado municipality looking after its cleanliness and safety ever since. So the first honest thing to say is the plain one, this is a place where going without clothes is the norm rather than the exception, and you should arrive knowing that. It is a respectful, long running community, not a novelty, and treated as such it is one of the more relaxed corners of the coast.

The value case is genuinely strong if the naturist character suits you. The beach is free public sand with no entry fee, the bay is sheltered so the water sits calmer than the wild Atlantic beaches in town, and because it is out of the centre it feels more natural and less built up. In the peak summer weeks it does fill, a couple of thousand people on the busiest January days, so it is a lively scene rather than a deserted cove. The cheap and pleasant move is the usual one, come earlier in the day or outside the January peak, when the sheltered water is calm and quiet and there is room to spread out for nothing.

The catch for a budget traveller is the getting there. Unlike the peninsula beaches you cannot walk to Chihuahua, it sits out past Punta Ballena in the Portezuelo area, so you need the bus along the coast road or a car, and the local bus is far cheaper than a taxi. Once you arrive the beach itself is free, but the services on the sand are seasonal and limited, so bring your own water, food and shade rather than relying on a parador that may or may not be open. If a naturist beach is not what you want, the clothed beaches of the peninsula are a short drive east, but for those who do, Chihuahua is a calm, free, well kept bay and the obvious choice in the region.