Wild camping in Switzerland: is it legal? (2026)

The Civil Code (art. 699) lets you walk into anyone's forest and pasture — the famous Swiss access right. What it nowhere says is that you may stay the night. That gap is filled by each canton, municipality and landowner, which is why this page goes canton by canton.

• The competent authority can carve out delimited access bans to protect crops; protected areas run their own rules.

In the federal game reserves the rule is one unadorned sentence: 'Das freie Zelten und Campieren ist verboten' — free tenting and camping, banned. Reserve boundaries move: check the current BAFU map before trusting a spot.

• The written ban names tents and camping; where a shelter-free bivouac stands isn't settled in the text — we don't read that as permission.

The canton's police handbook says it in writing: occasional nights by a few people, in the mountains above the forest and outside protected areas, are tolerated — if you spare the wildlife at dawn and dusk, no noise, no fire damage, no litter and no organic souvenirs.

• It's written official tolerance, not a statutory right. The distinction matters: it can harden without any law changing.

Here the canton mildly contradicts itself: its biodiversity page says tent nights above the treeline are 'allowed throughout Switzerland'; its police handbook says a tent usually exceeds the access right and asks for the owner's permission. We keep the cautious version: small tent, one night, outside protected areas — and permission if you can get it.

• In nature reserves and wildlife quiet zones: banned, no nuance.

Where Bern's wildlife-area map marks category F, the rule expressly bans free camping and bivouacking — both, in writing. Don't generalise it backwards: each protected area has its own category, and you need the current one.

In Valais the municipality decides: the cantonal plan tasks them with regulating wild camping in their police bylaws. Construction law only kicks in beyond 12 units or 3 weeks of installation — and staying under that alarm doesn't mean you're allowed: it means your case is settled by whichever village you're in.

• Applies equally to tents, caravans and vans: the construction rule names them together.
• The canton's official camping page is 'under revision' after the March 2026 cantonal plan — the picture can change; that's why this country carries a watch flag.

For a tentless bivouac we found no clear cantonal rule: the construction text covers installations — tents, caravans — not a sleeping bag on the ground for one night. With the official page under reconstruction, the honest answer is exactly that: unconfirmed. Ask the municipality or the owner.

The canton admits it in its own planning papers: wild camping in Graubünden is regulated at municipal level and 'uniform rules are lacking'. Translation: there's no canton-wide answer to give you — there are as many answers as municipalities, and yours sits in the bylaws of whichever one you're standing in that night.

• Same for sleeping in the vehicle: no single cantonal rule, no official inventory of spots. Signs and local bylaws rule.
• The Swiss National Park (which sits in this canton) is handled separately, below.

Ticino's camping law bans camping outside authorised areas, but leaves one written door open: 'l'attendamento a scopo di bivacco in montagna' — pitching for the purpose of a mountain bivouac. A genuine exception, in the statute. What the law doesn't say is how many nights or how far it stretches: don't push it.

• Owner's consent, fire rules, protected areas and municipal bylaws still apply on top.

Outside the mountain exception, Ticino allows camping 'unicamente nelle aree autorizzate' — authorised campsites, full stop. The fine is issued by the municipality and the law hands it a range of CHF 50 to 10,000: that's article 27's legal ceiling, not the going rate for one night in a tent.

The same law defines 'campeggiare' by expressly naming tents, caravans and motorhomes: a temporary overnight away from home in one of them is camping, and camping outside campsites is banned. Parking without the overnight is a different thing — the law doesn't touch it and neither do we.

• Same municipal penalty range: CHF 50–10,000 as the legal ceiling (art. 27).

In Switzerland's only national park there are no greys: bivouacking is banned by the protection ordinance and carries a fixed CHF 200 fine on the official penalty list; camping is banned too, inside the park and on its car parks. The federal park commission can grant exceptions — you and I aren't one.

Fine: CHF 200 (fixed fine for bivouacking, official park tariff)

Spending the whole night on the park's car parks is banned, and the tariff defines it with Swiss precision: 'the whole night' is 22:00 to 05:00, and it costs a fixed CHF 150.

Fine: CHF 150 (fixed fine, 22:00–05:00 on park car parks)

Verified here: Bern, Valais, Graubünden and Ticino — the cantons holding the Alps most people come for. Zurich, Vaud, Uri, Lucerne, the two Appenzells, St. Gallen and the rest, 22 cantons in all, are in the queue: we haven't read their rules at the source and we won't pretend we have. Meanwhile the rule above holds everywhere: municipality, protected area, landowner.

• The guide grows by verification passes — each canton is added once its rules have been read at the source, not before.