Commentary about Vera Playa

Commentary

On this page our webmaster muses on the naturist world of Vera Playa, indulges in the occasional tirade against authority and just about every other possible target and generally acts the grumpy old man - but sometimes he's right you know, and if you don't think so you can e-mail your views to him - he might even publish them, or even be persuaded to change his own views through civil and rational argument (come on now, who are we kidding?)
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"State of the Union" in Paradise
In the past I've been accused of being a "glass half-empty" person - or should it be "glass half-full"? I've never known as my watchword has always been to have an objective and realistic view about any subject as I don't believe in either self-delusion or in pulling the wool over others faces - there's enough people indulging in both of these activities already.

So, with this in mind, how are things in Paradise in mid-2010? Well, as I write, a short period of poor weather is behind us and VP is back to its customary near-perfect weather, so that's good (thanks perhaps to global warming the weather patterns in southern Spain are not quite as stable as once they appeared to be, but having said that the number of days of poor weather in the summer period is very small compared to the UK and Northern Europe and even to central and northern Spain). Secondly, it's quiet at VP just now, which to those of us who like things quiet, is good, but some of the reasons for the quietness are not so good:

First, the recession, loss of confidence in the economy, austerity measures, et al. Am I talking about Spain or the UK or Europe generally? Answer: yes - all three. The Spanish property market has taken a bigger crash than the UK's has (so far) and this seems to be especially so on the costas where the Spanish have taken a spending spree over the past decade, much of it on credit. The chickens have now come home to roost. There are a lot of unsold properties and a lot of unfinished developments on the coasts but not, fortunately, in the Vera Playa naturist zone, where (with the one exception of Natura World which seems still to be mired in problems) all the developments were completed several years ago. There are, of course, lots of properties for sale and one suspects that there would be even more if there was an realistic chance of selling them. Mind you, every cloud has a silver lining, and it is a pretty good time to buy if you fancy a place of your own in the sun. But, of course, people tend to be like sheep and run together - when confidence is high, as it was through most of the noughties, it seemed like a good time to buy even if it wasn't and now confidence has evaporated it seems like a good time to hold back from buying even though it may be the best time ever to do so. Still, with the future so uncertain on almost every front - employment, pensions, taxes and austerity measures, the euro, cost of living, investment returns etc - you can see why it is only the brave who are taking the plunge. Those that do can certainly get more for their Euro - and if they are prepared to go inland a bit they can get even more (but don't forget to make absolutely sure the property you buy is legal or it might be at risk of demolition!).

Second, as far as UK visitors are concerned, air fares seem to have increased stealthily but considerably. Mind you, the bargain basement prices of the past few years couldn't possibly last - some of the budget airlines are said to have made more profit on catering sales than on actually running the flights - that's got to be crazy.

Third, car rental rates shot up last summer and availability of cars disappeared at critical busy times due to a combination of the Credit Crunch and switching of production by car manufacturers away from supplying the car rental industry to the more profitable car scrappage schemes across Europe. The signs are that summer 2010 is also going to be a good bit more expensive than used to be the case (£200+ per week for a small car compared with around £100 two or three years ago). And availability looks to be an issue again this summer with some periods only having flash cars available at very high weekly rates.

The cost of accommodation probably hasn't changed much as providers don't want to discourage clients and costs at the resort are being contained by visitors themselves, principally by not eating out as frequently or, in some cases, at all. The consequences of this for the restaurants and bars is, of course, potentially catastrophic and quite a few have already gone to the wall. Again, every cloud has a silver lining, and each closure means a little less competition for the survivors. Some establishments seem to have adjusted to the realities of the present and have cut their prices to attract customers, others seem to go on oblivious - until they close that is.

Threat to the naturist beach? Over the years two of the biggest issues of concern in the naturist zone have been the threat to the southern half of the naturist beach and the renting of apartments (and in a few cases the sale of apartments) to people who are clearly not naturists. As regards the first of these, it is ever more the case that the beach south of Playa de Baria 1 through to the Hotel Zimbali/Vera Gardens development, all of which was designated as naturist, has become de facto textile most of the time (the exceptions are very first thing in the mornings, when there is poor weather and in the winter). The other phenomenon I've noticed is the extent to which textiles now use the main length of naturist beach which at one time would be virtually 100% naturist - the reason for both of these is no doubt the extent of textile developments fronting the naturist beach and the number of textile developments (such as Vera Mar 6 and the Las Salinas developments behind the naturist zone, for whom the main naturist beach is the nearest beach). Naturists fail to walk to colonise the full length of the naturist beach and textiles also want to walk the minimum distance to the beach. The phenomena of textiles walking through the naturist beach and of cars of voyeurs cruising the naturist zone have increased and the tourist "land-train" has just added an entertainment for local textile tourists - jeering at the naturists (the principal offenders seeming to be Brits - as ever, both repressed and loudly badly behaved).

Of course, Spanish naturists claim that as under the Spanish Constitution it is not illegal now to be naked in any public place it is no longer necessary to fight for designated naturist beaches or even to mark those which are already designated. I personally think it is a mistake not to have the full length of the Vera Playa naturist beach clearly marked as there are plenty of people - especially some elderly Spanish people and, notably, Brits, who can be quite upset and vocal when they see naked people on what they wrongly believe to be 100% textile beach.

Threat to "fully naturist lifestyle status of residential urbanizacions". The situation re renting and sale of properties to non-naturists shows some successes and some failures - it seems that urbanizacions such as La Menara, Parque Vera and Vera Natura have stamped on this and preserved the "fully naturist" lifestyle which owners and people they rent to are supposed to adopt. Others, such as Bahia de Vera and Torremar Natura have not and it seems there are now even instances where UK owners who seemed, as a group, to be committed to keeping things naturist but who are these days willing to rent their properties to non-naturists.

The urbanizacions which have cracked down on renting to non-naturists seem to be those which have a strong President and Governing Body living permanently on site, whereas those which haven't seem to be those with weak Presidents/Governing Bodies not living full time on site. Over the years there have been some extraordinary instances of inappropriate lettings - such as lettings to groups of Moslem workers and to prostitutes. Sadly, some owners seem so desperate for lettings that the requirements of Community Rules that renting shall be only to those who live a naturist lifestyle are deliberately ignored.

Bob, webmaster, www.veraplaya.info

18 June 2010

Latest update 18 June 2008