Is there one European rule for free camping?

No. There is no EU-wide or Europe-wide rule, and the national positions are not close to each other. Norway lets you pitch a tent on uncultivated land at least 150 meters from the nearest inhabited house for up to two nights, under its Outdoor Recreation Act. Croatia prohibits camping outside designated camps by statute. Both are in Europe. Treat every border as a reset.

Can I sleep in my motorhome in a French national park?

Not under the bivouac rules. The French national parks portal defines bivouac as a single night in a basic setup and explicitly excludes anything motorized: voiture, camping-car, van. Park regulations apply in the zone cœur (core zone) only. In the aire d'adhésion around it, bivouac is permitted unless the commune has ruled otherwise.

How far from a house do I have to pitch a tent in Norway, and for how long?

The Norwegian Environment Agency states at least 150 meters from the nearest inhabited house or cabin, on utmark (uncultivated land), for up to two nights in the same place. Longer is allowed in the high mountains or far from settlement. On innmark (cultivated land) you need the landowner's permission. The agency's tent page says nothing about motorhomes, so do not read it as covering them.

Does allemansrätten let me park a motorhome anywhere in Sweden?

No. Pitching a tent for a night or a few nights in forest and open land is part of allemansrätten, per Länsstyrelsen Skåne. A vehicle is a different question, answered by parking law, off-road driving law and the kommun rather than by allemansrätten. Länsstyrelsen also notes that the regulations in many nature reserves forbid standing overnight in a motorhome, often between midnight and 06:00. Read the reserve sign at the entrance, and use a designated stopover if you want the night settled before you arrive.

Can I wild camp in the Lake District?

Not as of right. The Lake District National Park Authority states that wild camping is technically not permitted anywhere in the park without prior permission from the landowner, that the Authority does not permit it on its own land, and that a landowner can order you to break camp. It also says parking a campervan or motorhome is not wild camping, and that camping in car parks or on roadside verges is not allowed at any time.

Free camping in Europe: how it actually works by country

Q: Is parking a motorhome overnight the same as camping in Italy?

Not automatically. Article 185 of the Codice della Strada says parking an autocaravan does not constitute camping as long as the vehicle rests on the ground only through its wheels, emits no discharge except from the engine, and takes up no more road space than the vehicle itself. Legs down or an awning out and you are on the wrong side of that line. Local parking signs and municipal orders still apply on top.

There is no European rule for free camping. Each country writes its own, several delegate the real decision to the municipality, and the range runs from a statutory right to sleep on open land to a flat statutory ban with fines attached. Anyone who tells you Europe is “generally fine” has not read the sources.

Two more things make this messier than it looks, and both matter before you book a ferry.

A tent and a vehicle are different legal questions. Almost every access right in Europe is a right of access on foot. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Scotland all give you something real, and in all four cases it is about walking and pitching a small tent, not about where you park. Sleeping in a van is usually parking law, set by a roads authority or a municipality, and it is governed by a completely different set of rules from the ones the “right to roam” articles quote at you.

Free camping and free overnight stopping are different products. Most of what you will actually sleep on is the second: a place a commune, a Gemeinde or a comune built for motorhomes, marked with a sign, often free. That is an aire, a Stellplatz, a sosta. It is not wild camping and the two are not interchangeable. If that distinction is new, start here.

Where a country note conflicts with a sign in front of you, the sign wins. So does whatever the mairie, the Gemeinde, the comune or the câmara municipal is saying this season. These pages are a starting point for planning, not a permit.

France

Bivouac and motorhome parking are two separate regimes, and mixing them up is the classic first-trip mistake.

For bivouac, the national parks portal is explicit. Bivouac means one night in a basic setup, pitched in the evening and gone in the morning, in the places the park allows. It excludes anything spread over several nights, anything with a table and chairs, and anything motorized: “motorisé (voiture, camping-car, van…)” is on the list of what bivouac is not. Park regulations apply in the zone cœur, the core zone, only. In the surrounding aire d’adhésion, bivouac is permitted except where the commune has said otherwise. Permitted hours vary by park: the Vanoise sets 19:00 to 08:00, the Écrins 19:00 to 09:00. (Portail des parcs nationaux de France)

For parking a vehicle you sleep in, French law hands most of the decision downward. The 1972 décret on caravan parking, still consolidated on Légifrance, lets the préfet prohibit parking outside developed sites in defined zones, and lets the mayor handle stays longer than three months. Restrictions are only lawful where they are needed to safeguard public health, tranquility and security, or to protect a site. (Légifrance)

In practice that is why the aire network exists and why the answer to “can I stop here” is usually written on a panel at the entrance. More on both: France and the bivouac rules.

Germany

Federal law gives you a right to walk, not a right to camp.

The Bundeswaldgesetz says entering the forest for recreation is permitted: “Das Betreten des Waldes zum Zwecke der Erholung ist gestattet.” Cycling and riding are restricted to roads and tracks, and the Länder can restrict access further. (Gesetze im Internet) The Bundesnaturschutzgesetz does the same for open countryside: everyone may enter on roads, paths and unused ground for recreation, with the Länder free to add restrictions. (Gesetze im Internet) Neither statute mentions camping or sleeping.

On the road side, the StVO defines parking as leaving your vehicle or stopping for more than three minutes, sets a two-week limit for trailers parked without a towing vehicle, and restricts vehicles over 7.5 tonnes in residential areas between 22:00 and 06:00. It says nothing at all about overnight stays or motorhomes. (Gesetze im Internet)

You will be told that Germany allows one night’s sleep in a vehicle to restore fitness to drive. No federal or Land government page states it, so do not park on the strength of it. Use a Stellplatz instead: the Gemeinde creates and regulates it, the sign at the entrance and the local Verordnung are your answer, and the answer is settled before you arrive rather than at 6am through a window.

Spain

Parking is a national matter, camping is a local one.

The Dirección General de Tráfico updated its motorhome instruction in March 2026. Motorhomes may stop and park under the same conditions as any other vehicle. Separately, the DGT points to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling holding that municipal traffic ordinances may limit how long you park and may “prohibir acampar, con excepción de las zonas autorizadas”, ban camping except in authorized zones, on urban streets. (DGT)

So the practical question in Spain is never “is free camping legal in Spain”. It is “what does this ayuntamiento’s ordinance say, and what does the sign at this parking area say”. Those are the two documents that decide it.

Italy

Italy draws the line in the Codice della Strada, and the line is unusually precise. Article 185 says parking an autocaravan does not constitute camping provided three things hold: the vehicle “non poggia sul suolo salvo che con le ruote” (rests on the ground only through its wheels), emits no discharge except from the engine, and occupies no more road space than the vehicle itself. Dumping grey or black water on a public road is separately prohibited and carries an administrative fine. Paid parking may be charged at 50 percent above the car rate. (Normattiva)

Put your leveling blocks down or wind the awning out and you have moved from parking to camping. That is the whole test, and it is why Italian sosta etiquette looks strict to visitors. Comuni add their own parking restrictions on top, and coastal comuni in season add plenty.

Denmark

Denmark’s headline offer is for tents, on state land, and it is generous.

The Danish Nature Agency runs fri teltning, free tenting, in more than 275 woodlands. It is free, and it is one night in a given spot. The agency’s separate primitive campsites allow up to two nights. Vehicle access into these areas is only permitted where it is signposted or where you hold a special permit. (Danish Nature Agency)

Sleeping in a motorhome in an ordinary Danish car park or rest area is a different question, governed by parking and municipal law rather than by the Nature Agency, whose rules above do not reach it. Read the sign in the car park, and if you want the night settled in advance, use a designated stopover. See Denmark for those.

Sweden

Allemansrätten, the right of public access, covers pitching a tent for a night or a few nights in forest and open land, so long as you do not damage the land or disturb the landowner. Länsstyrelsen Skåne puts it as “att tälta något dygn i skog och mark ingår i den svenska allemansrätten” and asks you to keep off arable and pasture land and away from dwellings. (Länsstyrelsen Skåne)

The same page is clear that protected areas are different: the regulations in many nature reserves forbid standing overnight in a motorhome or equivalent, often between midnight and 06:00. Reserve regulations are written per reserve and posted at the entrance, which is where you check them.

Parking and overnighting a husbil outside protected areas is a separate question, and allemansrätten does not answer it. Parking law, off-road driving law and the kommun do. Naturvårdsverket publishes national guidance on it, and the kommun’s own parking rules decide it locally, so check both before you plan a night around a lay-by rather than a stopover.

Norway

The Norwegian Environment Agency states the rule plainly. On utmark, uncultivated land, you may pitch a tent at least 150 meters from the nearest inhabited house or cabin, for up to two nights in the same place. Longer is fine in the high mountains or far from settlement. On innmark, cultivated land, you need the landowner’s permission. (Miljødirektoratet)

Note what that page does not say: it says nothing about motorhomes or campervans. It is a tent page, under the right to roam. Do not stretch it to cover a vehicle.

Check the kommune before you plan around a particular spot. Several Norwegian municipalities have introduced their own camping restrictions in the busiest areas, and those sit on top of the national 150 meter rule rather than under it. The general right is your floor, not your permission slip for the fjord car park everybody photographs.

Finland

Everyman’s rights, jokamiehenoikeudet, let you stay and set up camp temporarily wherever access is otherwise allowed, at no cost and without asking the landowner. Metsähallitus, the state body that runs Finland’s national parks, lists the limits alongside it: you may not light a fire on someone else’s land, and you may not drive a motor vehicle off the road. (Metsähallitus)

Protected areas narrow it sharply. In national parks camping is allowed only at designated sites, and access to strictly protected areas needs Metsähallitus permission.

Metsähallitus puts no number on how long “temporarily” is. Keep it short and move on, which is the safe reading of the word in any language, and ask Metsähallitus or the landowner if you want more than a brief stop.

Scotland

Scotland is the genuine outlier in the UK. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 gives everyone statutory access rights over most land, exercisable for recreational purposes among others. (legislation.gov.uk) What that permits in practice, lightweight camping in a tent, small numbers, two or three nights in one place, is set out in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and covered on our Scotland access code page.

For vehicles the answer is different and there is an official scheme rather than a right. Forestry and Land Scotland runs Stay the Night in participating forest car parks: self-contained motorhomes and campervans only, one night only, 18:00 to 10:00, and you may not return to the same car park within 48 hours. Most sites are £10 a night, four with chemical disposal are £13, and Blue Badge holders stay free. No fires, no barbecues, no generators. Vehicles over 7 meters and caravans are limited to nine car parks. (Forestry and Land Scotland)

Seasonal byelaws also apply in parts of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs. “Legal in Scotland” and “legal here” are two different sentences.

England

England gives you no camping right and it is worth being blunt about it. GOV.UK’s own guidance on open access land states that you cannot usually camp there, and that driving a vehicle on it is not permitted. (GOV.UK)

The Lake District National Park Authority is the clearest official statement of how this works on the ground. Wild camping is technically not permitted anywhere in the park without prior permission from the landowner. The Authority does not permit it on the land it owns, and a landowner or their representative can order you to break camp and move on. Where it is tolerated, the Authority’s conditions include staying one night only and camping above the fell walls. (Lake District National Park Authority)

Vehicles are handled separately and more firmly. The same Authority states that the only legal places to park a campervan overnight are formal campsites, that parking a campervan is not wild camping, and that camping in car parks or on roadside verges is not allowed at any time. (Lake District National Park Authority)

Wales is a separate answer. The GOV.UK guidance above covers England and points elsewhere for Wales. Do not assume the English position carries across the border, and do not assume the Scottish one does either. Check the Welsh guidance and the national park authority for wherever you are heading, and get the landowner’s permission before you pitch anything.

Croatia

Croatia bans it by statute, and names the equipment. The Zakon o ugostiteljskoj djelatnosti (the hospitality activities act) as published in the official gazette provides at article 29 that “zabranjeno je kampiranje izvan kampova”, camping outside camps is prohibited. The definition of camping equipment in the same article covers a tent, a camping hut, a caravan, a mobile home and an autodom, a motorhome. Narrow exceptions exist for organized sporting, scouting and cultural events on spaces designated by the local authority. (Narodne novine)

The ban is the part to plan around, and it covers a motorhome as squarely as it covers a tent. Book a registered camp. The fines in that published text are stated in kuna and Croatia adopted the euro in 2023, so the amount you will actually be quoted is not the one in the statute as printed.

Netherlands

Plan on booked accommodation in the Netherlands, and ask the gemeente if you want anything else.

Staatsbosbeheer, the state forestry body, manages a large share of Dutch nature reserves, and its rules are the clearest published position. They say most areas are open from sunrise to sunset, “de meeste gebieden zijn geopend van zonsopgang tot zonsondergang”, and that you should follow the access signs at the entrance and stay on the paths meant for you. (Staatsbosbeheer) Its overnight page offers only booked options: 21 nature campsites, group sites, holiday homes and off-grid cabins. It offers no informal option at all. (Staatsbosbeheer)

That covers the land Staatsbosbeheer manages, which is a lot of the countryside you would want to sleep in, and it is not a statement of Dutch law generally. The enforceable answer everywhere else sits in the gemeente’s own ordinance, so that is who to ask.

Portugal

Ask at the câmara municipal, and read the posted sign at the parking area in front of you. Portugal changed its rules on motorhome overnight stays in recent years and the position has been described several different ways since, in several different directions, so plan on designated parking and paid sites rather than on a rule somebody quoted you in a forum.

Greece

Plan on organized campsites unless a sign or the local authority tells you otherwise. Greek camping restrictions are widely reported and attributed to specific statutes, but the versions circulating in English do not come from the Greek government, and the gap between them matters most on exactly the beaches where people try it. Ask the local police or the municipality, and read the sign.

The one habit that travels

Wherever you are, the order of authority is the same: the posted sign, then the current local guidance from whoever posted it, then anything you read in advance, including this page. A national rule tells you what is possible. A municipality tells you what is allowed here. A sign tells you what is allowed here today.

So prefer a place with a body behind it. A designated stopover has a commune, a Gemeinde, a comune or an agency you can call, and one that will tell you when the rule changes or the site closes. A spot somebody posted on a forum has nobody, and the first you hear of a new barrier is when you meet it.

Sources

Where the original is not in English, the summary above is ours and the linked text is the authority.