Wild Camping in Europe: Where It's Legal (41 Countries)
Last reviewed
Where wild camping is legal in Europe, country by country
There is no European law on wild camping. Forty-one countries set forty-one sets of rules, and the ones that matter most to anyone sleeping in a van are rarely the ones written on the sign. What was true in 2018 is often wrong now: Portugal closed its biggest loophole in 2021, Iceland banned campervan overnighting outright in 2015, and Poland quietly opened several hundred thousand hectares of state forest in the other direction.
This guide gives you the current position for every European country with meaningful van travel — the law that applies, what is actually tolerated on the ground, what it costs if it goes wrong, and where to sleep instead.
There are four answers, not two
Most guides sort Europe into legal and illegal. For someone sleeping in a vehicle that split is wrong almost everywhere, because the majority of European countries ban camping while permitting a parked vehicle with people asleep inside it. These four buckets are the distinction that decides whether you get a knock on the window.
- Legal — 5 countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia have a right-to-roam law — allemannsretten, allemansrätten, jokamiehenoikeus, everyman's right — making it lawful to pitch up on uncultivated land, subject to distance from dwellings, a night or two in one spot, and leave-no-trace. Poland is the odd one out and belongs here anyway: no general right, but the Zanocuj w lesie programme opened hundreds of designated state-forest areas in 2021, free and without booking. Worth knowing: these laws are written for people on foot. They say nothing about parking three tonnes of vehicle, which falls under road traffic rules instead.
- Van OK, camping banned — 6 countries: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and Scotland. Setting up outside is an offence; a legally parked, road-legal vehicle with people sleeping in it is parking. This is the single most useful thing to understand about van travel in Europe, and it is covered in detail below.
- Restricted but tolerated — 18 countries: Romania, Albania, Turkey, Switzerland, Ireland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Cyprus and others. Technically restricted, patchily enforced, and the variable is almost always the same three things: how protected the land is, how far into the season you are, and how visible you have made yourself.
- Banned and enforced — 12 countries: Croatia, Portugal, Iceland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Slovenia and Denmark among them. Fines are real and get issued. These countries generally compensate with the best legal stop networks in Europe — which is why a banned country is often an easier one to travel in than a tolerant one.
The "parking vs camping" distinction
In France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and Scotland — six of the countries van travellers spend the most nights in — the law distinguishes between camping and parking. Camping means an awning, a table, chairs, chocks, levelling blocks, a step: anything that turns a vehicle into a pitch. Parking means a taxed, insured, road-legal vehicle standing where parking is permitted. Sleeping inside it does not change what it is.
That distinction is not folklore. Spain has separate words for it — acampada is prohibited, pernocta is not. Italy's Codice della Strada treats a motorhome as an ordinary vehicle, so where a car may park, you may park. German road traffic law goes further and explicitly permits a single night's stop to restore your Fahrtüchtigkeit, your fitness to drive, wherever parking is legal. One night, inside the vehicle, nothing outside it.
In practice this means a self-contained van, parked in an ordinary public car park with nothing set up outside, is usually fine in those countries. The moment a chair goes on the grass you are camping, and that is where fines start. It also means arriving late and leaving early is not evasiveness — it is the literal legal difference between a stop and a pitch.
Greece is the clearest case, because it was written down most recently: Law 5209/2025 states that sleeping or resting inside a properly parked vehicle is parking, and that an awning, a table, chairs, a clothesline or a raised pop-top is not.
It is not universal. Portugal's 2021 law targets sleeping in the vehicle rather than setting up outside it. Croatia's enforcement makes no distinction at all. Iceland's 2015 ban names campervans specifically. Check the country before you rely on it.
Every country, one at a time
41 countries, each with the law that applies, what is actually tolerated on the ground, the fine if it goes wrong, and where to sleep instead. Search for yours, or filter by how strict it is.
Rules and penalties last checked September 2026. Fines are indicative — many countries set them regionally rather than nationally, and where no figure is published we say so rather than guess. Check locally before you rely on any of it.
- The rule
- Allemannsretten (Outdoor Recreation Act 1957) allows camping on uncultivated land, at least 150 m from any inhabited house, for up to two nights in the same spot.
- In practice
- The right is about tents and people on foot — it says nothing about parking a three-tonne vehicle. Overnighting in a motorhome falls under road traffic and municipal parking rules instead, and lay-by overnighting is widely accepted where there is no sign against it. Tourist-pressure spots along the Atlantic Road, Lofoten and the Geiranger fjords have been posting bans since 2019.
- Fine
- No offence to fine
- Sleep here instead
- Lay-bys and rest areas off the E-roads, plus bobilplasser in the fjord towns.
- The rule
- Allemansrätten allows one night on uncultivated land, out of sight of and well away from dwellings. Roadside parking is generally permitted for up to 24 hours where parking is not signed against.
- In practice
- Genuinely relaxed, and forest tracks make it easy. The right does not extend to driving off-road to reach a pitch — that is a separate offence under the Terrängkörningslagen, and it is the one thing van travellers get caught doing.
- Fine
- No offence to fine
- Sleep here instead
- Forest tracks, lake-side pull-ins, and the free ställplatser in most small towns.
- The rule
- Jokamiehenoikeus allows temporary camping on uncultivated land at a reasonable distance from homes. Open fires need the landowner's permission.
- In practice
- Lake-side pull-ins and forest roads are effectively yours. Fire restrictions bite hard in a dry summer and are taken seriously — check the varoitus before lighting anything.
- Fine
- No offence to fine
- Sleep here instead
- Lake-side parking and the free laavu shelters maintained by Metsähallitus.
- The rule
- Camping outside designated sites is prohibited on both public and private land. Sleeping in a vehicle on a public road counts as camping in most municipalities.
- In practice
- Enforced, especially on the coast. The compensation is real but it is not for vehicles: the Danish Nature Agency runs over 1,200 free shelter sites and more than 275 woodlands open to free tenting, and motorised vehicles are excluded from them unless a site is signposted for it or you hold a permit. In a van, Denmark is a campsite-and-autocamperplads country.
- Fine
- Up to around €500
- Sleep here instead
- Municipal autocamperpladser and campsites; the free Naturstyrelsen shelter sites if you are in a tent.
- The rule
- The 2015 amendment to the Nature Conservation Act prohibits overnighting in campervans, caravans and motorhomes outside registered campsites, anywhere in the country.
- In practice
- Rangers enforce it, rental companies warn about it, and the ban was a direct response to the tourism boom. Tent camping on uncultivated land retains a narrow exception, but not if you arrived by vehicle.
- Fine
- No fixed statutory tariff; reported penalties start around ISK 50,000 (~€340)
- Sleep here instead
- Registered campsites — around 170 of them, and the Camping Card covers many.
- The rule
- Camping outside designated campsites requires the landowner's explicit permission. There is no right to roam.
- In practice
- Land is owned and farmed in a way that makes informal camping genuinely unwelcome rather than merely illegal. Asking works more often than you would expect; assuming does not.
- Fine
- No published tariff; camping without the owner's permission is the offence
- Sleep here instead
- The dozen or so official campsites, several of which sit in spectacular places.
- The rule
- Everyman's right allows camping on unfenced, unmarked land unless the owner has signed against it.
- In practice
- RMK, the state forest manager, maintains hundreds of free campfire sites and forest huts with firewood provided. Easily the best free-camping value in the Baltics.
- Fine
- No offence to fine
- Sleep here instead
- RMK forest campfire sites — free, mapped, and genuinely maintained.
- The rule
- Access to state forest is open, but camping and fires are restricted to designated places. Private land needs permission.
- In practice
- Inland forest tracks are relaxed. The Baltic coast strip and Gauja National Park are patrolled in summer and are where fines actually happen.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; protected areas and the coast are where it is enforced
- Sleep here instead
- LVM state forest recreation sites, and campsites along the coast road.
- The rule
- Camping is permitted only at designated sites within national and regional parks, which covers most of the places worth stopping.
- In practice
- Outside protected areas nobody minds much. Inside them — and the Curonian Spit is a UNESCO site with its own rangers — it is a different conversation entirely.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; the national and regional parks set their own
- Sleep here instead
- Designated park campsites and roadside poilsiavietės.
- The rule
- The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code grant access rights for non-motorised recreation only. A campervan is not covered. Loch Lomond & The Trossachs adds camping management byelaws requiring a permit in zoned areas from March to September.
- In practice
- Roadside overnighting in a van is widely accepted where there is no sign against it, and the NC500's popularity has pushed several Highland councils into posting overnight restrictions and charging for lay-by use. Behave as if you are parking, not camping, and you will rarely have a problem.
- Fine
- £500 max in the Loch Lomond byelaw zones
- Sleep here instead
- NC500 Motorhome Scheme stops, council-run aires, and informal lay-bys off the A-roads.
- The rule
- Camping without the landowner's permission is civil trespass. The exception is Dartmoor: after a long legal fight the Supreme Court confirmed in 2025 that backpack camping on the Dartmoor commons is lawful — on foot, not in a vehicle.
- In practice
- Overnighting in a van in a public car park sits in a grey area decided by local byelaws and signage, and coastal councils in Cornwall, Devon and Pembrokeshire have been posting and enforcing overnight bans. The Caravan and Motorhome Club's certificated locations are the practical answer: five-van fields, usually £10–15.
- Fine
- Typically a move-on order; councils with overnight byelaws issue their own fixed penalties
- Sleep here instead
- CL/CS five-van sites, Britstops farm and pub stops, and pub car parks with permission.
- The rule
- There is no right to roam. Camping without permission is trespass, and the Wild Atlantic Way councils have byelaws allowing them to move vehicles on.
- In practice
- Rural Ireland is relaxed and asking a farmer usually works. The pressure points are the Wild Atlantic Way car parks in July and August, where barriers and height restrictions have been going in for years.
- Fine
- Usually a move-on order — wild camping is a civil trespass, not an arrestable offence; parking byelaws carry their own charges
- Sleep here instead
- Designated motorhome parking, campsites, and pub car parks where you ask first.
- The rule
- Camping sauvage is restricted by the Code de l'urbanisme and by mayoral order, commune by commune. Stationnement — a taxed, roadworthy vehicle parked where parking is allowed, with nothing set up outside — is legal and is what sleeping in a van counts as.
- In practice
- This distinction is the whole game in France, and it is well understood by the gendarmerie. Coastal communes in the south post bans for July and August. Forests, protected areas and beaches are off-limits year-round.
- Fine
- €35–135; up to €1,500 as a 5th-class offence in protected areas
- Sleep here instead
- 5,000+ municipal aires, most free or under €12, plus France Passion farms and vineyards.
- The rule
- Acampada libre — anything set up outside the vehicle — is prohibited nationally and by every autonomous community. Pernocta, sleeping inside a parked vehicle within its road markings, is not a traffic offence.
- In practice
- Enforcement is regional and hardening. Catalonia, the Balearics and much of the Andalucían coast now post explicit overnight bans; Aragón, Extremadura and inland Castile barely notice. One chair on the ground converts pernocta into acampada and a warning into a fine.
- Fine
- €60 to several thousand, depending on the region and how protected the land is
- Sleep here instead
- Áreas de autocaravanas in most towns, and low-season campsites at €12–18.
- The rule
- Law 66/2021 amended Article 50-A of the Código da Estrada to ban overnighting outside campsites and authorised areas, targeting sleeping in the vehicle directly rather than setting up outside it. A later amendment carved out certified self-contained motorhomes, which may stay up to 48 hours in the same municipality wherever parking is otherwise legal — but never in Natura 2000 sites, natural parks or protected coastline.
- In practice
- The GNR enforce it on the Algarve and the Alentejo coast, which is exactly where everyone wants to be — and where the 48-hour carve-out does not reach, because most of that coast is protected. Inland Portugal is a different country in practice, and municipality-hopping keeps a slow trip legal.
- Fine
- €60–300 for individuals; €120–600 in protected areas
- Sleep here instead
- Áreas de serviço, and an expanding private network of low-cost motorhome parks.
- The rule
- Camping outside sites is prohibited. But road traffic law permits a single overnight stop to restore Fahrtüchtigkeit — fitness to drive — wherever parking is legal. One night, inside the vehicle, nothing set up outside.
- In practice
- This is a real, commonly relied-on provision, not a folk rule. Police who knock will generally accept it. Stay a second night and it stops applying. Nature reserves and Bavarian alpine parking are handled far more strictly.
- Fine
- No national tariff — set per Land; often a warning first, and far more in a nature reserve
- Sleep here instead
- 5,000+ Stellplätze, many free or €8–15 with services.
- The rule
- Municipal byelaws prohibit overnighting in a vehicle outside designated places. Most municipalities also cap how long a motorhome may stand on a public road at all.
- In practice
- Dense, overlooked and well policed. The upside is that camperplaatsen are everywhere and cheap, so the ban costs you very little.
- Fine
- No national tariff — set per municipality, commonly €90–170, and charged per person in some
- Sleep here instead
- Camperplaatsen — several hundred of them, typically €10–20.
- The rule
- Camping outside authorised terrain is prohibited under both Flemish and Walloon codes. Sleeping in a vehicle on the public road is covered by municipal byelaws that vary town to town.
- In practice
- Consistently enforced, and hardest in Flanders and along the coast; Wallonia is less visible about it though the rule is identical. Both regions run official aires de bivouac — one night, in a tent, at a recognised zone — which are the legal way to sleep outdoors here, and aires de camping-car for vehicles.
- Fine
- €50–350
- Sleep here instead
- Aires de camping-car across both regions; aires de bivouac in the Ardennes and Flemish nature areas if you are in a tent.
- The rule
- Camping outside authorised sites is prohibited. Overnighting in a vehicle on public roads is restricted by communal byelaw.
- In practice
- You can cross Luxembourg in ninety minutes, so the practical answer is usually to sleep on either side of it. Cheap fuel is the reason to stop.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; set by communal byelaw
- Sleep here instead
- A dozen campsites in the Müllerthal and Ardennes, plus two municipal aires.
- The rule
- There is no national rule. Cantons and communes decide, and they differ sharply: Aargau, Bern, Schwyz and Uri allow a single overnight stay in a vehicle, while others prohibit it outright. National park land is closed to it everywhere.
- In practice
- On a public car park with no prohibition sign, one night is often tolerated — but only without camping behaviour: no awning, no chairs, no tarp. A single high-altitude night above the tree line is broadly accepted in the mountain cantons. Swiss costs push most people onto sites regardless.
- Fine
- CHF 100–500, and up to CHF 2,000 in protected areas
- Sleep here instead
- TCS sites and the Swiss Stellplatz network; expect CHF 25–45.
- The rule
- Each Bundesland sets its own rule, under its own camping and nature-protection acts. Tyrol prohibits camping outside campsites outright under §3 of its Camping Act, and Salzburg, Vorarlberg and Carinthia are comparably strict. Rest-area overnighting to recover fitness to drive is generally accepted.
- In practice
- The strict states are precisely the alpine ones people drive to, and Tyrolean enforcement around the Zillertal and the Ötztal is active in season. Do not read 'less alpine' as 'relaxed': Lower Austria carries the highest wild-camping penalty in the country.
- Fine
- Set per state: up to €3,600 in several, and up to €14,500 in Lower Austria — the steepest in the country
- Sleep here instead
- Stellplätze and alpine campsites; autobahn rest areas for a single night in transit.
- The rule
- The Codice della Strada treats a motorhome as an ordinary vehicle: where a car may park, you may park, and sleeping inside is not camping. Campeggio — awning, steps, table, levelling blocks — is banned outside sites and regulated by comune.
- In practice
- Coastal comuni in Liguria, Sardinia, Puglia and the Amalfi post explicit overnight motorhome bans with height barriers to match. Inland, and out of season, sosta is genuinely unremarkable. Check for the divieto di sosta camper sign before you settle.
- Fine
- €100–500
- Sleep here instead
- Aree di sosta camper in most towns, and agriturismi through Agricamper Italia.
- The rule
- Camping outside registered sites is prohibited nationally, and the Triglav National Park rules are stricter again.
- In practice
- Enforcement concentrates on Bled, Bohinj and the Soča valley, where rangers do patrol car parks overnight. Rural eastern Slovenia is largely indifferent.
- Fine
- €100–500, and up to €1,000 in Triglav; €500 per person in the Julian Alps municipalities
- Sleep here instead
- Postajališča za avtodome — a good and growing network, typically €15–25.
- The rule
- The Hospitality and Catering Industry Act prohibits camping outside registered sites, explicitly including sleeping in a vehicle. Enforcement is a stated tourism-ministry priority.
- In practice
- Issued on the spot, and applied to the coast and the islands in season without much discretion. This is the country where van travellers most often report an actual penalty rather than a warning, and the one place on this page where the advice is simply: book a site. Inland, away from the tourist coast, it is barely policed.
- Fine
- Commonly up to ~€400; higher figures are quoted for repeat and commercial cases
- Sleep here instead
- Autocamps and camp stops, which are plentiful and reasonable outside August.
- The rule
- Camping and fires are prohibited in national parks and protected landscape areas — which covers Šumava, Krkonoše and Bohemian Switzerland, the places people actually go.
- In practice
- Outside protected land a discreet night in a car park is unremarkable, and a single night taken to stay fit to drive will generally not be fined. You may not park a motorhome in forests, on meadows or beside lakes and rivers. Inside the national parks rangers are active — though Šumava does designate a few places to stay overnight.
- Fine
- CZK 500–5,000 (~€20–200), enforced hardest in protected areas
- Sleep here instead
- Kempy and the growing network of motorhome stops near the larger towns.
- The rule
- The Lasy Państwowe 'Zanocuj w lesie' programme opened over 600,000 hectares across 425 forest districts to camping, free and without booking for up to two consecutive nights in groups of nine or fewer. Longer or larger needs an email to the local forest district. National parks remain closed to it.
- In practice
- A genuine, signposted right rather than tolerance, covering hundreds of thousands of hectares. It is written for tents and people on foot; vehicles must stay on the forest road, which in practice means a van at the edge rather than deep in.
- Fine
- Up to PLN 500 (~€115) outside the programme areas
- Sleep here instead
- Zanocuj w lesie forest areas, plus campsites on the Baltic and in the Tatras.
- The rule
- The Nature and Landscape Protection Act prohibits camping and fires outside designated sites in all protected areas — including the whole of the High Tatras.
- In practice
- Tatra rangers are active and unsympathetic; the mountain huts exist precisely so that you do not need to. Lowland Slovakia is barely policed but also barely visited.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; set under the protected-area rules that cover the mountains
- Sleep here instead
- Mountain chaty, autokempingy, and a handful of motorhome stops near Poprad.
- The rule
- Camping outside designated sites is prohibited in national parks and protected areas, and a licence is needed to pitch in either. The Forest Act allows a stay of up to 24 hours in a forest — but on foot, not with a motor vehicle.
- In practice
- Rural Hungary is relaxed, and a discreet night at a service area, a supermarket or a small-town car park is normal where nothing is signed against it. Lake Balaton in summer is not — the shore is intensively managed. Never in a national park.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; set by the park or landowner, and steepest in the national parks
- Sleep here instead
- Erdei kirándulóhely forest rest sites, and campsites around Balaton and the Danube bend.
- The rule
- Law 5170/2025 tightened the rules sharply in January 2025; Law 5209/2025 walked the parking half back that July. Wild camping is firmly prohibited. Parking is not: a motorhome may park wherever a car legally may, and merely sleeping or resting inside a properly parked vehicle is legally classified as parking. Inside town limits vehicles up to 7.5 m may park indefinitely; longer ones are capped at 24 hours.
- In practice
- The line is drawn at the vehicle door, and drawn explicitly: an awning, a table, chairs, a clothesline or a raised pop-top converts parking into wild camping. Beaches and the islands are where it is actually enforced, and the port authority has its own jurisdiction over the shore.
- Fine
- €300 per person on the spot; up to €3,000 and three months' imprisonment if it reaches court
- Sleep here instead
- Campsites, which are cheap and often stay open through winter in the south.
- The rule
- No general prohibition on unenclosed land, subject to conditions that are actually written down: at least 200 m from dwellings, one night per spot, and nothing inside a national park, nature reserve or Natura 2000 site.
- In practice
- The Carpathians and the Transfăgărășan are widely used by van travellers with no difficulty. Bear activity, not enforcement, is the thing to plan around — keep food sealed and inside.
- Fine
- RON 300–3,000 (~€60–610); RON 1,200–2,500 in protected zones
- Sleep here instead
- Mountain cabanas and a thin but growing set of motorhome stops.
- The rule
- The Tourism Act restricts camping to registered sites, and a 2020 amendment specifically targeted caravans and motorhomes on the coast.
- In practice
- Mountain and rural Bulgaria is easy if you are discreet. The Black Sea strip is the opposite — active enforcement and on-the-spot fines. Rila, Pirin and Central Balkan national parks allow camping only in designated bivouac zones or beside the mountain huts.
- Fine
- Up to around €300 per person on the coast
- Sleep here instead
- Coastal campsites and the eco-huts in the Rila and Pirin mountains.
- The rule
- No meaningful prohibition outside national parks, and little enforcement within them.
- In practice
- Beach and mountain overnighting is normal and usually welcomed. The constraint is the roads and the water supply rather than the law — plan around where you can fill up, not where you can sleep.
- Fine
- No offence to fine
- Sleep here instead
- Informal coastal parking, plus a fast-growing set of small private camps.
- The rule
- Camping outside registered sites is restricted, and national park rules apply in Durmitor and Lovćen.
- In practice
- Durmitor and the north are easy. The coast between Herceg Novi and Budva is heavily developed and increasingly signed against overnight motorhomes.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; fines do get issued in Durmitor and on the coast
- Sleep here instead
- Small private eco-camps, which are plentiful, cheap and often the nicest option anyway.
- The rule
- No general prohibition. National parks restrict camping to designated areas.
- In practice
- Van travellers report no difficulty. The real constraint is landmine contamination — roughly 2% of the country remains uncleared. Stay on hard ground and marked areas, and never pull onto an unmarked verge in a rural area.
- Fine
- No offence to fine
- Sleep here instead
- Designated sites near Mostar, Jajce and Una National Park.
- The rule
- Camping outside sites is restricted in national parks; elsewhere there is little regulation and less enforcement.
- In practice
- A transit country for most van travellers, and an easy one. Tara and Đerdap are worth stopping for and have designated sites.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; the national parks set their own
- Sleep here instead
- National park camps and municipal sites near the Danube.
- The rule
- Restricted within national parks; otherwise lightly regulated.
- In practice
- Mavrovo and Galičica are straightforward. Lake Ohrid's shoreline is a UNESCO site and municipal wardens do move motorhomes on in season.
- Fine
- No published national tariff; Ohrid's wardens move motorhomes on in season
- Sleep here instead
- Lakeside campsites at Ohrid and Prespa, typically €10–15.
- The rule
- No general prohibition outside protected areas. Municipalities regulate beaches and some have posted restrictions since 2022.
- In practice
- Turkey has its own substantial karavan culture and the infrastructure that comes with it. The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts are busy in summer and some beaches now charge or exclude.
- Fine
- No national law either way, and no published tariff; municipalities set their own beach rules
- Sleep here instead
- Orman kampı forest camps and a large private campsite network on both coasts.
- The rule
- The position is genuinely unclear: there is no clean statutory ban on sleeping outside a licensed site, and camping away from protected areas is not generally pursued. Protected areas are the exception, and so is fire.
- In practice
- Discreet camping around the island is broadly untroubled; the tourist strips around Ayia Napa and Paphos are where you will be moved on. Fire is the one thing Cyprus is strict about, and the penalty for lighting one is real. The Department of Forests sites cost a few euros and sit in the best parts of the island.
- Fine
- Around €600 for lighting a fire; no clear published tariff for camping itself
- Sleep here instead
- Department of Forests campsites at Troodos, Platania, Polis and Governor's Beach.
- The rule
- Overnight bivouac above 1,500 m is permitted between dusk and dawn. Camping below that, and all motorhome overnighting on public roads, is prohibited.
- In practice
- The rule is written for walkers. For a van it means the valley car parks are off-limits, and Andorra is where people stop to buy fuel and alcohol rather than to sleep.
- Fine
- No published tariff; the altitude rule is what is enforced
- Sleep here instead
- Three campsites in the valleys, plus a signed motorhome area at Sant Julià de Lòria.
- The rule
- Camping requires a permit from the Environment and Resources Authority and is confined to a handful of designated sites.
- In practice
- There is no unobserved ground on Malta. Van travel here is a ferry-and-hotel proposition rather than a camping one.
- Fine
- No published tariff; camping needs an ERA permit
- Sleep here instead
- Two official campsites; most visitors leave the van on Sicily.
- The rule
- No general prohibition. Some coastal municipalities have restricted informal camping since 2017, and a gardien economy has grown up around the popular spots.
- In practice
- Tens of thousands of European vans winter here. Informal coastal camps run on a small daily payment to a gardien; it is not official, it is entirely normal, and it buys you security.
- Fine
- Rarely issued
- Sleep here instead
- Coastal camping areas at Sidi Ifni, Mirleft and Taghazout, plus formal campsites in the cities.
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What it costs when it goes wrong
Published fine ranges are a poor guide to risk on their own, because the number you are shown is usually the maximum and the number people actually pay is usually the minimum. What varies far more than the amount is the likelihood of anyone issuing it.
- Most often a knock, not a fine: Germany, where there is no national tariff at all and a first night is frequently just a warning, France at €35–135 as a parking offence, and Sweden and Norway, where there is generally no offence to charge. In most of Europe a first contact with the police is an instruction to move on.
- Fines that genuinely get issued: Croatia is the outlier — not for the size of the fine, commonly quoted at up to around €400, but because it is the one country that treats sleeping in a vehicle as camping and issues on the spot along the coast in season. Portugal's GNR enforce €60–300 on the Algarve. Greece sets €300 per person. These three are where van travellers most often report having actually paid.
- Where the numbers get serious: Protected land, everywhere. France reaches €1,500 as a 5th-class offence, Spain runs into the thousands, Slovenia €1,000 inside Triglav, and Lower Austria up to €14,500 — the steepest figure on this page, and not in the alpine state you would guess. A national park boundary is the single biggest multiplier here.
- The cost nobody prices in: A fine is recoverable. A rental deposit, a clamped vehicle, or a night spent driving to find somewhere legal at 11pm is worse. The reason to get this right is mostly that the alternative wastes your holiday.
Why the rules keep tightening
Wild camping is getting more restricted across Europe — Portugal in 2021, Iceland in 2015, Italy's regional bans, the byelaws going up along Scotland's NC500 and Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way. This is not legislators waking up one morning with a dislike of van travellers. It is a response to waste left behind, grey water dumped in nature, fires lit in fire-restricted seasons, and residential streets treated as free campsites. Every sign reading no overnight motorhomes started as a reaction to something specific.
The arithmetic is unforgiving: the more responsibly van travellers behave, the longer the tolerant rules survive. Empty your toilet at proper dump stations. Carry your grey water until there is somewhere to put it. Don't park where you would not want a stranger parked outside your house. Move on after a night or two. Be quieter than you think you need to be. Leave the spot cleaner than you found it, including litter that was not yours.
The countries at the top of this page — the five where it is still genuinely legal — are the ones with the most to lose. Norway has already posted bans along the Atlantic Road and in Lofoten. Treat the right to roam as something on loan.
Apps and networks worth having
- Park4Night: The most comprehensive crowd-sourced database of legal and tolerated stops across Europe. Essential, and the reviews matter more than the pins — a spot with no comment in two years has usually been signed against.
- Campercontact: Dutch-developed, stronger than Park4Night for Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, and better at flagging services.
- France Passion: €30/year for 10,000+ French farms, vineyards and producers offering a free night. Pays for itself in a fortnight and is the single best-value thing in European van travel.
- Britstops and Agricamper Italia: The same idea for the UK and Italy respectively — pubs, farms and vineyards offering a free overnight to members.
- ACSI CampingCard: Discounted off-season campsite network across Europe, typically €18–23 a night including electricity.
- VanRoute AI: What we do: plan the route and the nights together, so the stops you are sent to are ones you are allowed to sleep at in the country you are in.
Frequently asked questions
- Which European countries is wild camping legal in?
- Five: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Poland. Norway, Sweden and Finland have long-standing right-to-roam laws (allemannsretten, allemansrätten, jokamiehenoikeus), Estonia has an everyman's right backed by an excellent free state-forest network, and Poland's Lasy Państwowe opened several hundred thousand hectares of state forest to camping under the Zanocuj w lesie programme in 2021. All five require you to stay off cultivated land, keep your distance from houses, and move on after a night or two.
- Is wild camping legal in Europe generally?
- No — there is no European-level rule, and 36 of the 41 countries covered here restrict it in some form. But roughly a third of Europe bans camping while still permitting you to sleep in a parked vehicle, so the practical answer for a van traveller is far more permissive than the legal answer suggests.
- What is the difference between wild camping and overnight parking?
- Camping is setting up outside the vehicle: awning, chairs, table, chocks, levelling blocks, a step. Parking is a road-legal vehicle standing where parking is permitted, with people asleep inside it. In France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Greece and Scotland the first is an offence and the second is not, which is why arriving late, setting nothing up, and leaving early keeps you on the right side of the line.
- Is wild camping legal in Belgium?
- No. Camping outside authorised terrain is prohibited under both the Flemish and Walloon codes, and sleeping in a vehicle on the public road is covered by municipal byelaws that vary town to town. Fines run €100–250 and it is consistently enforced. Flanders licenses a modest network of farm and nature stopovers, and both regions have municipal motorhome areas.
- Can you wild camp in Croatia?
- No. Croatian law prohibits camping outside registered sites and — unusually — treats sleeping in a vehicle as camping too, so the parking argument that works in Italy or France does not work here. Fines are commonly quoted at up to around €400 and are issued on the spot along the coast and the islands in season; inland, away from the tourist coast, it is barely policed. Use the autocamps, which are plentiful and reasonable outside August.
- Can you wild camp in a campervan in Scotland?
- Not under the right to roam. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code grant access rights for non-motorised recreation only — on foot, by bike or by canoe — so a campervan is not covered. Roadside overnighting is widely accepted where nothing is signed against it, but Loch Lomond & The Trossachs requires a permit in zoned areas from March to September, and several Highland councils have posted overnight restrictions along the NC500.
- How much is the fine for wild camping in Europe?
- It ranges from nothing at all to a few thousand euros, and there is often no national tariff to quote — Germany sets it per Land and the Netherlands per municipality, where it can be charged per person. Where a figure is fixed: France €35–135, Portugal €60–300, Italy €100–500, Greece €300 per person, Slovenia €100–500. Protected land multiplies everything — France reaches €1,500, Slovenia €1,000 inside Triglav, and Lower Austria €14,500, the steepest in Europe. In most of Europe a first contact with the police is an instruction to move on rather than a penalty.
- Which country has the best motorhome stop network?
- France and Germany, with over 5,000 designated stops each — aires and Stellplätze respectively, many free or under €15 a night with water and waste disposal. Italy's aree di sosta and the Netherlands' camperplaatsen are close behind. As a rule the countries with the strictest wild camping bans have the best networks, because one is the answer to the other.
- Where can you wild camp for free in Europe?
- The five right-to-roam countries are genuinely free. Beyond them, the cheapest legal nights are Estonia's RMK forest sites and Poland's Zanocuj w lesie areas (both free), Denmark's roughly one thousand free Nature Agency primitive sites, France Passion's 10,000 farms and vineyards (€30 a year for unlimited nights), and the several thousand free municipal aires across France and Germany.