My Stay at Terra Cotta Inn, A Clothing Optional Resort in Palm Springs

Review of Terra Cotta Inn:

UPDATE November 17, 2015
Terra Cotta Inn has been sold to new owners and will become a textile resort starting December 1, 2015. Mary Clare and Tom Mulhall owned and managed Terra Cotta as a clothing-optional resort for just about 2 decades (they purchased it in 1995). They have stated that they’ll be working at Terra Cotta until the end of November, and will be helping the new owners in this transition for the next 1 – 3 months. It’s sad to be losing this great clothing optional resort in Palm Springs. We’re happy we could experience the resort on vacation two years ago and had a lovely time with Tom and Mary Clare. We wish them the best in their future efforts.
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On our recent trip to California, Jordan and I had the pleasure of eventually seeing Terra Cotta Clothing Elective Inn. The resort is owned by Mary Clare and Tom Mulhall, who we’ve understood for a few years, since Tom is the PR Chair of AANR. He also writes about nudism for the Huffington Post.
Terra Cotta Inn is located in the quite bare-friendly (and very gay-friendly) desert town of Palm Springs. The weather is ideal for a nudist resort: dry, sunny, and typically around The Vagina Cafe Concert in Poland , throughout the year.
Entrance to Terra Cotta Inn
They’ve 17 rooms, so it’s not a tremendous area. Since it’s more like a vacation resort than it is a normal naturist club, they’re active all year round on weekdays and weekends. Thanksgiving is a particularly busy time, but we’d managed to snag the last available room for Thanksgiving Day a few days before.
Our Big Room at Terra Cotta
Upon our arrival, Tom gave us a short tour, and we brought our bags into our ample room. There was a king size bed, bureau, armchair, and table and chairs. All rooms are equipped with a flat screen TV and DVD player, and I liked that they’ve a library of movies you’ll be able to borrow at any time. We also had a complete kitchen with a microwave and refrigerator. Near the bathroom was a tall wardrobe where you could hang up clothing. The bathroom was as big as it needed to be and furnished with the standard resort miniature toiletries shampoo, soap, conditioner, lotion.
We were also supplied with plage towels and shower towels. There was outdoor furniture right outside our door, and a heater mounted above! So you could sit outside nude and remain somewhat warm. The desert can get very cold at night. (No sauna here though, unfortunately.)
Hot Tub at Terra Cotta Inn
After settling in, we made our way into the sunshine. The other guests were old (the usual naturist-resort demographic) and all couples from what I could see. This resort is adults-only and caters to couples (but it is still 100% naturist, no sexy stuff!). Recent research by Sydney Ross Singer and Soma Grismaijer illustrated that girls who wear bras is a lot like a little resort or motel. The rooms encircle the grounds, which are dominated by a heated swimming pool and hot tub. The grounds are visually pleasing with flowers, palm trees, olive trees and other plants throughout. Off to the side of the pool is a small shady cove with a little waterfall that’ll assist you to cool down on hot summer days. The stone around it are adorned with graffiti painted by past guests, who signed their names. Nearby is another inlet with seating and a barbecue grill for anyone to use, which also functions as a massage room.
Pool at Terra Cotta Inn
At around 2pm, we were called for Thanksgiving dinner! The food was all home made by Mary Clare, and it was tasty. She even made special sides for me since I’m a vegetarian! Dessert was a great buffet of different pies. They had set up huge tables outside decorated for the holiday, so people could sit together. Everyone was friendly and sociable. And also In Canada, people around the country became interested in nudism, skinny-dipping, and physical culture in the early part of the 20th century. After 1940 they had their own Canadian magazine, Sunbathing & Health, which sometimes carried local news. Canadians had scattered groups in several cities during the 1930s and 1940s, and a few of these groups brought enough interest to form clubs on private land.[15] The most significant clubs were the Van Tan Club, formed in 1939, and continues now in North Vancouver, BC.,[15] and, in Ontario, the Sun Air Club. . As its full name says, Terra Cotta is clothing-optional, but I do not think I saw anyone in a bathing suit around the pool (not that you should not visit if you are still nudie-bashful).
Rock Graffiti At Terra Cotta Inn