Motorhomes parked on a headland above a wild grey beach

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Free camping in Europe, country by country

How free camping works across Europe, in English: aires, Stellplatze, sostas, shelters, and the rules that decide what is legal where.

01 · Where to start

Which country are you heading to?

Most free overnight stops in Europe are official parking areas built for motorhomes, not spots someone found in a forest.

01 · France France has the deepest network of free aires in Europe, and the best open data behind it About 2,070 French sites are tagged free in OpenStreetMap 02 · Germany A Stellplatz is the German version of an aire, and a good number of them cost nothing About 1,041 German sites are tagged free in OpenStreetMap 03 · Denmark Denmark is the outlier: an official network of simple shelters in state forests About 539 Danish sites are tagged free in OpenStreetMap 04 · The map Every free stopover in the launch countries, on one map you can filter By country, type and amenity

Start here They are called aires, and they are signposted Nothing on this page is ordered by what anyone pays us, because nobody pays us.

02 · Europe

Read this before you book the ferry.

Every europe page

Guide Free camping in Europe: how it actually works by country There is no European rule. Each country sets its own, the range runs from a statutory right to camp to an outright ban with fines, and the two questions (tent or vehicle) get different answers. Country by country, from the statutes and agencies that set the rules. Jul 20 Read →

03 · From the blog

Latest in europe.

All posts

Blog Europe free camping mistakes first-timers make Six assumptions that cost people money or a night's sleep on a first European trip: one European rule, the aire as a campsite, the unbought vignette, the serviceless stopover, portable wild camping law, and August. Jul 20 Read → Blog Free aires maps by country: what exists and what does not Which countries you can plan a trip from here, which are pins on the map with no written page, which are not on the map at all, and what to use instead. Jul 20 Read → Blog Scotland NC500 free camping: a reality check Scotland's access rights cover a tent carried on foot, not a campervan. What the route's own official guidance and The Highland Council actually permit, what it costs, and why there is no free overnight network to plan around. Jul 20 Read →

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FreeCampMaps runs display ads and nothing else. Nobody can pay to appear on this page, to sit higher on it, or to change what we say about where you can legally stop. Where a link here goes to a shop or a manufacturer it goes there directly, without a tracking parameter, and we are not paid whether you follow it or not. The full position is in the advertiser disclosure.

Next step

Learn what an aire is before you drive to one

Almost everything on the map for Europe is an aire, a Stellplatz, a sosta or an official campsite. Fifteen minutes on what those are, what the service point does, and how you are expected to behave will save you a lot of guessing at the barrier.

Understand aires Open the map