Mar Bella

Mar Bella

Clothing optional (naturist) beach in the Barcelona city center.

This beach is also known as Platja de la Mar Bella.

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There is one location related to Mar Bella.

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Reviews

There are 2 reviews of Mar Bella.

Trip Report by Anonymous on 4/21/2007
To clarify - this is an official nude beach and there are fixed signs piled into the sand proclaiming it. That said, having been to numerous nude beaches, this is definitely one of the most interesting in terms of how open it is.
The crowd is mellow and some nice trance music is DJed from the nearby cafe (as is the case all along Barcelona's beaches). Cool scene, highly recommended.
Trip Report by BeachComber on 8/15/2006
In early July of 2006 I had the opportunity to spend five days on Mar Bella beach in Barcelona. This covered a Sunday through Thursday span during morning and afternoon which gave me the opportunity to get a feel for the beach during both weekend and weekday periods and at different times of the day.

Situated between two break waters, Mar Bella is one of the farthest beaches from downtown. Only Nova Mar Bella is further out. A board walk runs behind the beach, and on all the way to Port Olympic and beyond. About one third of the beach is shielded from the board walk by a high sand dune. The beach runs roughly southwest (closest to downtown and Port Olympic) to northeast with the high dune behind the southwest 1/3 of the beach.

From what I've read in different sources, there is nothing which explicitly prohibits nudity on any of Barcelona's beaches. Still, during my time there, I didn't see anyone going totally nude on any beach other than Mar Bella. For the rest, topless was the norm. By all accounts, Mar Bella is Barcelona's de facto naturist beach.

The nudist section probably started out behind the sand dune, which would shield it from view of people on the boardwalk, but has long outgrown that space. On every day I was there the nude section ran from the far southwest end to half way between the end of the sand dune and the end of the beach to the northeast. The dividing line seems to be roughly between the two beach snack shacks on the portion of the beach exposed to the boardwalk, about where a ramp runs down from the boardwalk onto the beach.

There was a drastic difference on the beach between the weekend and weekdays. On the weekend the beach was practically overflowing all the way to the midpoint line mentioned above. Interesting, the density of people on the clothing optional section of the beach was probably three times that of what was present on the northeast (textile) end of the beach. No demographic dominated the beach during the weekend. There is a pretty even mix of singles, couples, groups, and families. There was some mix of textiles on the clothing optional side of the beach but 80%+ of the population chose to go with no swimwear.

During the weekdays Mar Bella has a different atmosphere. As would be expected, there are far fewer people on the beach. What I didn't expect was how much the demographic of those people shifts throughout the day. First thing in the morning the beach is dominated by people of retirement age. The older crowd seems to like to get that early sun. By late morning the older group moves out and a few parents with kids start showing up. In early afternoon, around siesta time, a younger adult population starts to build. Finally, later in the afternoon, things start to shift to a gay crowd. Of course, at any time in the day you'll see people from any demographic, but there is a definite shift.

Vendors on the beach were no trouble at all. A few people roam through ever ten or fifteen minutes offering beer or soda, but they are not aggressive at all and were quite welcome by many people on the beach who didn't want to wander up to a snack bar. There were a few south-east Asian women offering massages, but again they were not aggressive. A very pleasant change from many beaches out there, I saw hardly anybody roaming around selling trinkets, offering to bead people's hair, or flat out panhandling. The individuals selling hats and sunglasses seem to mostly setup on the boardwalk and just have their wares on display rather than actively pushing them on people.

For eating you have a few options. If you don't feel like putting anything on, just wander up to the beach snack shack next to the dune (one of two snack shacks on the beach with the other being on the clothed side). They won't care if you show up wearing nothing but a smile. Also, you can rent beach loungers next to the snack shack if you don't want to lie on the sand. If you want more than the snack shack has to offer then I'm afraid you'll have to put your swimsuit back on. If you go up on the boardwalk and start heading southwest you'll pass a few beach restaurants. Food is good, beer is cold, and the view is wonderful. If you want a larger selection of food then you can walk all the way down to Port Olympic where there are many restaurants to choose from.

After a day at the beach you may not want to have to wander all the way back into the city for a night's rest. There are a few hotels close to Mar Bella. The one I stayed at, Hesperia Del Mar, is only about two blocks from Mar Bella. It had reasonable rates and from the rooms you can actually see the water. A Barcelona Metro station is only a ten minute walk from the hotel and from there you have access to the whole city.

All in all, there is probably no beach I would recommend higher than this one for an uninhibited environment while still having access to a fun city and good dining. Enjoy!

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Photos

There are 4 photos of Mar Bella.

Naturist Mar Bella

Naturist Mar Bella

Mar Bella Close Up

Mar Bella Close Up

Mar Bella Nude Beach

Mar Bella Nude Beach

Mar Bella Beach

Mar Bella Beach

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Nearby Beaches

There are 10 beaches within 3.7 miles / 6.0 kilometers of Mar Bella.

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Nearby Towns

There are 10 towns within 1.9 miles / 3.0 kilometers of Mar Bella.

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Nearby Hotels

There are 10 hotels within 0.4 miles / 0.6 kilometers of Mar Bella.

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