FKK, Naturism, Swingers and Libertine: Four Things People Mix Up

These four words get swapped around as if they meant the same thing, and they do not. A German FKK club is a sauna club where women offer paid sex on the premises. Naturism is nudity with nothing sexual about it, on beaches, at campsites and in clubs run by naturist federations. A swingers club is where couples and singles meet to play with each other, with no one paid for sex. And libertine is simply what the French call that same swingers scene.

Getting it wrong is easy and occasionally embarrassing: a family naturist campsite is not the place to look for a swingers party, and an FKK club in Germany is not a nudist sauna. Here is how to tell them apart.

FKK stands for Freikörperkultur, free body culture, and in its original sense it is simply the German word for naturism. Germany's naturist federation, the DFK, still uses it that way: its pages talk about FKK and naturism interchangeably, and about 75 years of the movement.

In the adult world the same three letters mean something else entirely. An FKK club (or Saunaclub) is a large sauna complex where guests pay one entry fee, everyone is nude or close to it, and women working there independently offer sex in private rooms. It is a German-speaking format, and it is what this site's FKK listings are. Our FKK club guide walks through a visit, and Erotic Sauna vs FKK Club separates it from the massage spas that share the word sauna.

The International Naturist Federation's own definition, adopted in 1974, describes naturism as a way of life in harmony with nature, practised through communal nudity to encourage respect for oneself, for others and for the environment. Its introduction for newcomers states it plainly: naturism isn't sexual. The federation now welcomes the words naturism, nudism and non-sexual nude recreation alike.

That is why naturist beaches, campsites and federation clubs are not listed on this site. They are family holidays and sports clubs, many of them run by federations that object to being presented as anything else, and a sexual expectation there is both misplaced and unwelcome.

A swingers club is a venue where couples, single women and usually a limited number of single men meet to have sex with each other. Nobody is paid for sex; the entry fee buys the space, the bar and often a buffet. Clubs typically have a dress code, a bar and dance floor, and play rooms that range from open areas to lockable rooms, and many set rules on consent, photography and who may enter on which nights.

Nudity is common inside, which is where the overlap with FKK and naturism starts and ends. A swingers club can have a sauna or a naturist garden and still be nothing like a naturist club, because the whole point of the place is sex between guests.

In France the scene is libertin: a club libertin is a swingers club, a sauna libertin a swingers sauna, and soirées libertines are swingers parties. There is no separate format behind the word, so libertine venues on this site sit in the Swingers category alongside their German and Dutch counterparts.

The clearest place to see the difference is Cap d'Agde on France's Mediterranean coast. Its naturist village, which the town's tourism office ranks among the leading naturist destinations of the Mediterranean, runs on its own regulated access and a charter: full nudity in harmony with other residents and holidaymakers, no filming or photographing others, and no activity or advertising of a pornographic nature. The village has two kilometres of sandy beach, a marina, and hotels, campsites and holiday rentals of every kind.

Cap d'Agde is also home to a cluster of libertine clubs and swingers saunas, and visitors come for one, the other or both. The point is that the naturist village's own rules are naturist rules; the libertine scene is a separate thing that happens in its own venues.