Google beach inspector tells you everything about the beaches with photos & videos. You can download the app too.

We are off to Playa Blanca on 24th Feb so I will probably be strolling to Papagayo beaches to take on some much needed vit D most days.

Sorry to reuse an old thread but seemed sensible to keep the info together in case anyone in the future wants to ask questions/advice of previous travellers.

A couple of years ago I got the bus from PB to Calero and walked back along the cliff path mostly naked. It was a long walk made longer by a couple of wrong turns.

We are off to Lanzarote on 20 Feb for 2 weeks. Staying in Puerto Del Carmen so will certainly be heading up to Charco del Palo a few times and maybe down to Papagayo as well.

Will be in Charco del Palo from 24 Feb until 2 March. Happy to say hi with anyone else there at the same time

@keelegill

Our third trip to Charco arriving on feb 28 for two weeks. Looking forward to getting some sun. 

Had a great few hours at Charco this afternoon- our second visit this holiday. Spent time at the rock pool along with some walking. So good in fact that we are thinking of looking into booking a week at the resort there next year to combine with a week at our timeshare resort in Puerto del Carmen. Hope to get up there at least one more time before we go home next Friday.

We’ve just arrived for a fortnight, sitting in the sun and our only protection is the large glass of gin.

Plan to visit again today. Probably the last one before we return to the cold on Friday.

Just back from a great 2 week stay in Sandos Papagyo Beach Resort and daily walks to the beach. Noted that the SE end of Playa Mujeres beach had many naked bathers but I went to the next beach Playa del Pozo which had probably 50/50 nudist/textile mixed across the whole beach but no one seemed bothered.

Second week started walking naked to/from the hotel using paths far from the beach. Only one close encounter with a runner who suddenly appeared from over the top of a hill forcing a quick raising of beach bag! Otherwise visibility was good enough to cover up as appropriate. Last day about half a mile away saw a shadow in my path near the top of a hill and cursed but he turned and took a different path having also spotted me (probably cursing as well) and I noticed a few minutes later he was similarly (un)dressed so need not have diverted 🙂

Not to get too carried asway with Lanza as a naturist destination : we holidayed in Charco for 7 consecutive years until deciding to buy a house there and move permanently from the UK. The property purchase deal fell through at the last minute, and we're now so very glad it did compared to how bitterly disappointed we were at the time.

Back then, in 2007, Charco was still a thriving happy place. The street lights weren't standing there like vertical rusted wreckage and the centro comercial was fully open: a super little village shop (albeit, irritatingly enough, you were required to get dressed to enter it) and fabulous restaurants, La Tunera and another on the headland, our favorite (yup, so much a favorite we've forgotten its name).

The German developer who pretty much created Charco was still alive and buying drinks at Peter's Pub back in those days and the sea was continuing to obligingly flush the waters of the rudimentary tidal rock pool that served as Carco's main bathing area (other than the one used by visiting divers, with steps far too steep for us to a diving platform that didn't much appeal, either.)

Eventually, we quit Charco altogether. Restaurants closed. The centro commercial even lost its 'village shop'. The village atmosphere it once had evaporated. Pavements crumbled, potholes appeared in roads, all the underlying structural faults of the developer's original anything-but-premium-quality infrastructural work became increasingly apparent.

After extensive sampling of other naturist destinations in Europe, including France, Spain and The Netherlands, we settled on Spain's Vera Playa, a superb agglomeration of naturist urbanizations with an infrastructure maintained in perfect condition and an actual beach gently shelving into the sea that Charco so conspicuously lacks. 

You can live naked in Vera Playa and saunter along its avenues at any time exactly as you wish; the beach is arguably the finest naturist beach in the world, and there's also much to commend the surrounding area: we adore Mojacar Playa for long walks along a magnificent sea front, and Mojacar Pueblo, the tiny 'white village' atop a mini-mountain overlooking the Playa. In all our years of visiting Lanzarote, we never once found any conurbation as attractive as those around Vera (we often relax in Aguilas, to the north of Vera Playa, a small coastal city that reminds us how unappealing Arrecife always was and presumably, still is.) 

We discovered Lanarote when Playa Blanca still had a small fishing fleet in 1991 and the international airport was a large, greenpainted shed. It was many years later that we accidentally encountered Charco for the first time. Everything changes, of course, but Charco's increasing delapidation, loss of amenities, and the perpetual disappointment of a non-existent sandy beach and gentle sea, means we were lucky not to invest there, still less settle as residents. Candidly, now that we've seen so many other beautiful naturist havens, we wonder at our naivety in ever thinking that Charco del Palo was a place to go, and a place to be.

The last review needs to be ignored as it a person’s/couples one sided & obviously bias view of losing out on purchasing a  property.

Personally speaking ....Lanzarote / Charo gain is losing your negativity. If you haven’t got anything positive-good to say it’s possibly best not to say it.

Having stated & quoted  ill informed & non factual miss leading information its abundantly apparent that you haven’t visited the Island & Charco in many years therefore suggest if you wish to write anything with authority on a subject its best to be up to date & currently correct notably stating “rusty Street lights” were a reason not to visit seem to be a bit of a lame & nit picking reason however must point out that all Street Lights in Charco are plastic & notably your comments about the “Village shop” ....Mini supermarket is actually well stocked & open daily. As for Pot holes in roads? Where..? Roads are fine & better than Spanish mainland areas.

You obviously have a negative hang up with Lanzarote & doing your upmost to promote  Vera Playa Spain tourist board .Personally  cannot see how you can make or compare like for like. Charco ...Peaceful ,scenic, safe & quiet in comparison Playa Vera...Noisy, Built up, dirty & high crime thefts with rowdy drunks ,It’s like comparing Rock (Cornwall)  with Blackpool  or Chalk n Cheese .

Anyone considering-wishing to visit Lanzarote  & Charco should do so... especially for those first time visitors as in my opinion you will not be disappointed but mostly don't be put off by the last post &  equally draw your own conclusions as many people do & return year on year to Lanzarote ,Canaries, Charco especially for those wishing & wanting the all year round weather-sunshine which is notably better than main land Spain ..Factual..                                        

As with anywhere else a bit of research goes a long way into deciding if a place is going to be right for you.

We’ve  been to Charco three times now, and really enjoy the place. Ive written a full review elsewhere so won’t go into one now. 

Charco has some bad points, but the good points are what keep us going back. We hope our next visit will be in September. Fingers crossed the world will be open for business again soon. 

We go to the Canaries for three or four weeks of winter sun so Charco is not for us as it hasn't a sufficient variety of restaurants and the supermarket doesn't seem to be sufficient for that length of stay.