The European Wild Camping Guide: Laws, Bivouac, and Essential Safety Tips

Sometimes wild camping in Europe is completely legal, other times it's banned in theory but not really, and other times unfortunately it's completely banned and even enforced. So if you're from Europe or you want to do some wild camping here in Europe then this video will definitely be useful to you because in this video I'll go over all the wild camping laws for each country in Europe and also give you some tips on how to Wild camp in Europe successfully without getting a fine.

I. The Complex Legal Landscape of Wild Camping

European Union doesn't have a single policy for wild camping and a lot of times even each individual country doesn't have a single policy regarding wild camping. Instead, the camping laws are often set by each municipality, region, or even a protected area or a national park. And also a lot of times wild camping is bundled up together even though parking your camper at the side of the street and building your tent in a remote area which is what I'm talking about in this video are not the same. I will only give you a rough overview of how Wild camping works and is treated in each country, but if you're planning to do a trip to a specific region then you should always do more research for that specific region because the wild camping laws might be different there. And also even though I did quite a bit of research for this video I can make mistakes so do not trust this information as you would the law.

Scandinavia and the Right to Roam

A good place to start is Scandinavia. For enthusiasts of wild camping, the best place to go in Europe is definitely Scandinavia. In Norway, Sweden, and Finland, wild camping is permitted by their **right to roam** laws. The exact regulations differ for each country individually, but in general terms, you can set up your tent almost anywhere, even on private property. The primary rules for camping under the right to roam laws are that the land must not look like it is actively used for grazing agriculture or other purposes, that your campsite should be at least 100 m away from trails roads rivers and houses, and also in a lot of places you are even allowed to build a small fire which is uncommon for the rest of Europe.

Central and Western Europe Regulations

Moving south, the rules become much more restrictive. In Central and Western Europe, wild camping is mostly prohibited or only tolerated. In areas like Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, you can wild camp legally only in a few natural parks and open access areas. That said, most local authorities in these popular hiking countries do not actively enforce these bands, especially if you set up camp late in the evening and leave early in the morning. The rules are more strict in some regions and can differ a bit more between them. **Bivouac**, which is basically sleeping overnight without a tent, is generally allowed above the tree line in popular hiking areas like the Pyrenees the Alps or other high altitude spots in Italy France or Spain.

Mountain Refuges and Bivouac Huts

And lastly, a lot of mountains in Europe are filled with refugios, biovac and Mountain Huts. They're usually small abandoned houses that only pretty much offer roof over your head and not much extra which are completely legal to use and anyone can use them. If you're using a hiking app for navigating they're usually marked on the map so you can find them that way. But keep in mind that not all of them will be in a good condition, some of them will be paid refugios, and some of them might be locked, so do not rely on them always and always bring a tent as a backup.

II. Essential Tips for Discreet and Safe Wild Camping

1. The Strategy of Discretion

If you're hiking outside of the official right to roam countries, the best policy is to be as discreet as possible. If a piece of land looks like it is actively used for agricultural purposes such as farmers who might come early in the morning to graze their animals, you should avoid it. Ideally, you should set up camp somewhere where it looks like no one will ever find you, which usually means somewhere where the trees are dense, or somewhere where you can take cover behind a few large rocks. Do not set up your tent immediately; instead, cook your dinner, wait for the sun to set, and then pitch your tent.

2. Dealing with Landowners

If you do end up wild camping on private property and the property owner finds you, and if he sees that you're not making a mess, you aren't making a fire, there's no trash anywhere, and you talk with him reasonably, he's more likely to let you stay.

3. Food Safety and Wildlife

To avoid encountering any wild boes and foxes in Central and Western Europe and bears in Eastern and Northern Europe, do not cook your food right next to the tent. Cook it at least 50 m away from the tent and always hang your food in a Dy sock at least 50 m away from the tent in a tree. If you're hiking in Bear Country you should also probably use a bear canister and do a much better job at Hanging the food in the tree, but honestly there aren't a lot of bears in Europe so it wouldn't be your main concern unless you're hiking in maybe ROM Romania or Finland.

III. Mastering Offline Navigation

Learn how to navigate properly. To find a good hiking trail, you can use sites like **Wikiloc** or **AllTrails.com**. Both of these websites contain hundreds of thousands of very good hiking trails. The difference is that Wikiloc is more popular here in Europe so it has much more trails to choose from over here but all Trails is much more popular in North America. If you go to either of these websites from your PC, you can choose a trail that you want to hike and then **download the GPX file for free** once you log into your free account. Then you need to go to your phone and download an app called **Gaia GPS** or **Locus maps** for actually navigating the trail. I would recommend either of these two apps because they're both free, they work offline, and they have very good maps to navigate. You basically need to download the GPX file from your PC, then send it to your phone and upload it to the app. But before you set off, you need to make sure that you'll be able to navigate offline because you maybe won't have any internet there. The way it works on the free version of either of these apps is that you have to zoom into the trail that you'll be hiking and it will automatically download in the cache of your phone the data from the map. You can check that it works by turning on airplane mode on your phone and then checking if all the data from the maps have been downloaded. The GPS on your phone should still work if there's no internet or cell reception, and that's basically it. Now you're all set to go out hiking if there's no internet. Enjoy new experiences and adventures