A naturist resort or nudist resort is an establishment that provides accommodation (or at least camping space) and other amenities for guests in a context where they are invited to practice naturism – that is, a lifestyle of non-sexual social nudity. A smaller, more rustic, or more basic naturist resort may be called a naturist camp.

A naturist club is an association of people who practise naturism together, but the phrase is also frequently used as a synonym for "naturist resort", since in general such a resort will be run by such an association. In the United Kingdom and New Zealand, some naturist clubs are referred to as sun clubs.

A naturist community is an intentional community whose members choose to live together and practise naturism on a permanent basis. Naturist communities were once referred to as nudist colonies, and this term still exists in popular culture, but it is avoided by most naturists today due to negative connotations.

Naturist resorts and communities exist on a spectrum without sharp distinctions – a naturist resort might be primarily commercial in focus but also accommodate some permanent residents, while a naturist community might be primarily residential but also cater to some paying visitors. Some naturist resorts and communities require nudity as a condition of remaining on the site; others are clothing-optional, allowing people to wear clothing so long as they tolerate others going nude.

A few naturist communities are large enough to host businesses such as shops, banks, and restaurants; these may be referred to as naturist villages. Examples include Vera Playa in Spain, and Centre Hélio-Marin Montalivet and the Naturist Village in Cap d'Agde, both in France. Some Europeans reserve the term "naturist resort" for communities of this scale.

The earliest known naturist club, the Fellowship of the Naked Trust, was founded in Matheran in British India in 1891 by a District and Sessions judge named Charles Crawford. The club had just two other members, brothers Andrew and Kellogg Calderwood. A proposal to add a female branch to the organization was never realized, and it went out of existence when Crawford was transferred to Ratnagiri shortly thereafter. He died in 1894. Correspondence between Crawford and early gay rights activist Edward Carpenter suggests the latter knew of similar groups in Vienna and Munich at the time, but no other evidence of their existence has surfaced.

The term Nacktkultur ("naked culture") was coined in 1903 by Heinrich Pudor for Germany's growing naturist movement, which connected nudity with vegetarianism, social reform, and various ideas about health and fitness. It flourished through the 1920s in a network of 200 members' clubs, and became associated with radical socialism. In 1929, Adolf Koch's new school of naturism in Berlin hosted the first International Congress on Nudity.

Marcel Kienné de Mongeot is credited with introducing naturism to France in 1920, seeing it as a potential cure for tuberculosis (which had affected his family). In 1926 he founded the first French naturist club, Sparta Club at Garambouville near Evreux. A court case initiated by him established that nudism was legal on private property that was screened from public view. In 1931, Drs André and Gaston Durville established the first naturist village, Héliopolis, on the Île du Levant.