Wild camping rules, country by country
Where sleeping outside is a right, where it is tolerated, and where it is prohibited. Every claim cited to an official source and dated.
01 · Where to start
Where are you thinking of sleeping out?
Wild camping is a legal question with a different answer in every country, so this section carries rules and zones. It never carries coordinates.
02 · Wild Camping Rules
Know the rule before you pitch.
All 5 wild camping rules pages
Guide Dartmoor wild camping: tents only, and what that means for vans Dartmoor is the one place in England where you can wild camp without asking the landowner. It is backpack camping in a tent, and it excludes vans, motorhomes and campervans outright. Jul 20 Guide France: bivouac and national park camping rules Bivouac is a French permission for walkers, not for vans. What the word means, the hours each national park sets, the two parks that ban it outright, and why an aire is the answer if you are driving. Jul 20 Guide The Nordic right to roam: Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark Sweden, Norway and Finland grant a general right of access that includes pitching a tent. Denmark does not work that way. And none of the four gave us anything that covers sleeping in a motorhome. Jul 20 Guide Scotland wild camping: the Outdoor Access Code explained Scotland gives you a statutory right to camp on most land. It covers a tent, not a campervan, and a national park byelaw can override it. What the Outdoor Access Code actually permits. Jul 20 Guide Wild camping vs free camping vs aires: the differences that keep you legal Three different acts, governed by three different bodies of law. Why 'wild camping is banned here' and 'you cannot sleep in your van here' are not the same sentence, cited to official sources. Jul 20Disclosure
No affiliate links. No sponsored placements.
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
Want somewhere you are certainly allowed to be?
Rules pages tell you where wild camping is permitted. They cannot tell you that a particular field is fine, and we will not pretend otherwise. If you would rather not make the judgement call, an official aire removes the question entirely.