Beaches

Austrian naturalist Camillo Morgan visited Rab in 1889, 1904 and 1909 and writes, “...the sea in ten or so beautiful bays has a special colour which becomes an emerald-green colour.  If the coasts of Italy and France deserve the name Côte d'Azur then this should be called the Côte d'Emerald.”

The island is a favourite destination of bathers, with the bathing season lasting from May to October and offering an abundance of sandy, pebbly and stony beaches, with something for all: families with children, skilled swimmers and divers, the handicapped and those in the their middle or later years.

Rab also took on a special note with the beginnings of naturism. It was 1936 when English king Edward VIII and Mrs Wallis Simpson, their yacht Nahlin anchored off Rab harbour, visited the old town centre. The city fathers then decided to offer them an excursion to the Frkanj peninsula, which the royal family accepted, and went on to enjoy the first nude swim in the inlet of Kandarola.  These were the beginnings of naturism on our island, and the inlet and peninsula have become a paradise for all naturists.

Naturism

The island of Rab is rightly referred to as the pioneer of naturism on the Adriatic. The month of August 1936 is frequently mentioned as the official beginning of naturism in Rab, i.e. when the English king Edward VIII stayed there and the Rab authorities allowed him and his wife to take a nude swim in the bay of Kandarola. However it is certain that naturism on the island started long before that. The article "Trade in nakedness", published in the Austrian economic journal "Trend" no. 11/83 reports that the naturist beach in Rab was officially opened as early as at the transition to this century and that 50 beds in the hotels were reserved for naturists.

The same article mentions that the firstnaturist beach in Rab was opened personally by Richard Ehrman, the presidentof the International Naturist Federation from Vienna in 1934. Naturism in Rab is also mentionedin the article of the Czech Josef Herman, in 1907 and of professor Günther in 1912, which proves that the Rab people had understood long ago the bright prospects of this movement which, at that time, was a very bold attitude. The possibility to swim without clothes attracts for a lot of tourists, so that many of them choose to spend their holidays in Rab. While nudists used to be very rare earlier, there are thousands of them nowadays.