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: 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).

Obwalden has what almost no Swiss canton does: an actual camping statute. Outside approved campsites it's prohibited by default, but art. 8 lets you pitch for a single night without a permit provided no public or private interests are impaired. And it adds a line worth the whole article: that night is at your own risk.

• One night. Repeating or extending it needs an applicable statutory exception or municipal authorisation.
• The municipality may additionally authorise youth camps, qualifying major events or another justified exceptional case. And with the owner's consent, temporary free camping is allowed on a residential building's parcel.

Same statute, same night: using a caravan or motorhome to camp outside a campsite is prohibited by default, with a single overnight allowed without a permit if no public or private interests are impaired.

• This is about camping use, not ordinary parking. And it doesn't lift traffic, landholder or protected-area rules.

Articles 6 and 8 name tents, caravans and motorhomes. They don't resolve sleeping under the open sky. Don't turn the tent exception into a general right to sleep out.

St. Gallen is Switzerland's pleasant surprise. An official cantonal leaflet says that camping and free tenting — bivouac included — by individuals and small groups is allowed or not prohibited in most of the canton. With reasonable fine print, not a catch.

• For multi-day stays, get the landowner's civil-law consent.
• Federal hunting reserves, nature reserves and areas under a municipal protection ordinance are excluded. And it asks you to avoid ecologically sensitive places: the upper treeline, alluvial areas and wetlands.
• It's official guidance, not a statutory licence. That's why confidence stays medium despite how clear the wording is.

The same leaflet expressly includes bivouacking within the activity allowed or not prohibited for individuals and small groups. In a country where almost nobody names the bivouac, St. Gallen names it to say yes.

• Compare Bern, where the official tolerance is limited to above the treeline. Neither of them is cantonal statute.

The leaflet that's so clear about tents says nothing about the vehicle. Its motor-vehicle section is about forest access and motorised events, not overnighting on the road.

• We don't attach the canton's CHF 80 ordinance-fine unit: it depends on an underlying municipal public-ground rule we haven't inventoried, and without that full chain we don't publish figures.

Vaud does have a rule, and a clear one: occasional camping outside authorised sites is permitted only with the consent of the landowner or, where applicable, the farmer or tenant. Beyond four days you additionally need municipal authorisation.

• The article itself expressly reserves municipal provisions, which may be stricter.

Vaud's Council of State confirmed the act applies to all types of camping and caravanning without distinction, camping-cars included. On private land: the landholder's consent, plus municipal authorisation beyond four days.

• This creates no right to sleep on a public road or car park — traffic and parking rules govern there.

Art. 27 regulates "occasional camping", and the statutory definition of camping ground speaks of mobile installations for temporary or seasonal habitation. Sleeping outside with neither tent nor installation doesn't appear.

• Don't assume the four-day route covers your bivouac.

The canton's official leaflet answers its own question flatly: "Is wild camping allowed in Nidwalden? In principle no." For a yes you need the landowner's consent. And it identifies one exception: an individual, non-group overnight in the mountains above the treeline.

• If you stay several nights, the tent comes down during the day.
• It stays prohibited in nature reserves, wildlife quiet zones, places under a general entry ban and the other protected areas the leaflet lists.

The official leaflet says it outright: emergency bivouacking is allowed. What it doesn't do is define a planned bivouac — so don't stretch the sentence beyond an actual emergency.

The leaflet gives the general owner-consent rule but doesn't resolve sleeping inside an otherwise lawfully parked vehicle. Its motorhome discussion is about planning and permanent forest parking, and we don't convert that into a road verdict.

Uri is the portrait of real Switzerland: the cantonal government acknowledges in writing that there is no cantonal wild-camping regulation, "as in many other Swiss cantons". Its 2025 inventory locates bans in five municipalities — Göschenen and Gurtnellen by camping ordinance, and Andermatt, Hospental and Realp inside their building and zoning rules.

• In Uri's other municipalities there was no municipal wild-camping rule when the government closed that inventory. That isn't permission: it's absence of a rule, and there's still a landholder and site-specific restrictions.
• A nice Göschenen detail: with the owner's consent you may camp free of charge and temporarily on a residential building's parcel.

No cantonal rule, and with the official definition of wild camping expressly recognising use of a vehicle as an overnight place. The five municipalities with bans apply them; the rest had no rule.

• And a separate layer: municipalities may regulate or prohibit night parking on roads and car parks, and that governs even where no camping ordinance exists.

The cantonal government accepts that wild camping can include sleeping under the open sky, but there's no cantonal rule and the inventory doesn't establish whether each municipal ban reaches a shelter-free bivouac.

• A cantonal reform is in the pipeline. It isn't law in force and we don't count it as such.

Schwyz doesn't talk about tents, it talks about hours: caravans, mobile homes and the like may only be set up for use exceeding 48 hours on approved campsites. The prohibition is glued to that exact case.

• That it prohibits exceeding 48 hours doesn't mean it authorises the first 48. The provision doesn't say that, and neither do we.
• There's a separate provision letting the authority allow itinerant communities (Fahrende) to place caravans outside campsites. It isn't a route for tourists.

We searched the official corpus and there's no cantonal verdict for a traveller's tent: the provision that exists speaks of caravans and mobile homes and doesn't mention tents. We don't project the 48-hour threshold onto them.

It doesn't appear either. No canton-wide positive right and no general prohibition located — and silence isn't permission.

What Lucerne has is planning law, not an answer for the traveller: it regulates land used regularly for camping and requires a building permit when that use exceeds 30 days. That doesn't answer one night.

• The implementing rule mentions public roads and places, but as a suitability requirement for camping land. We don't read it as a general one-night prohibition.

Same story: regular land use, permit at 30 days. The sentence about not being on public roads or places is planning context and doesn't resolve sleeping one night in a lawfully parked vehicle.

We opened the text and searched it: the cantonal provisions located don't mention a shelter-free bivouac. There's no cantonal verdict, by statute or official guidance.

In Glarus the only thing we could confirm is one protected area: in the Rieterwald at Mollis, tenting and camping are prohibited. We don't generalise it to the rest of the canton, because the provision doesn't.

• Art. 8 allows exceptions where special circumstances — public interests above all — justify them and higher law permits.

The canton's official campaign says wild camping is prohibited in protected areas and recommends sleeping in huts, but it neither defines a shelter-free bivouac nor gives a cantonal verdict.

• The absence of a cantonal rule doesn't authorise anything outside the listed sites.

The Rieterwald provision prohibits making pitches available for caravans inside the protected area, and that's as far as the confirmed material goes. No cantonal rule for sleeping in a vehicle was located.

A useful warning: Zürich's former canton-wide resolution on tenting and camping is recorded as repealed on 1 October 2003. If someone cites it as current law, it isn't.

The most useful find of the fourteen. The canton's official forest guidance places bivouacking or camping by up to four people with a single tent, outside mapped very sensitive areas, within what's acceptable.

• Going beyond changes the regime: multi-day stays, groups of five or more, more than one tent, or activity in a sensitive area move into notification and possible authorisation.

The current tourism statute regulates campsite operators and the visitor tax, not the individual. We also opened the wildlife-protection ordinance and located no cantonal rule for the traveller.

The building ordinance lists places for tents, caravans and mobile homes among permit-controlled projects. That governs the development of camping places, not your night.

Using public space beyond common use requires permission. What the text doesn't do is say whether a one-night tent or shelter-free stay is common use or exceeds it.

We located no cantonal provision in the official corpus. What the Läufelfingen instrument does show is the mechanism: a municipality can define a camping special zone and permit temporary uses.

The building statute restricts tent and camping places operated over a longer period to serviced plots in designated zones. That phrase establishes no rule for one night.

No cantonal rule located. The only retained material reproduces a free-tenting and camping prohibition for hunting reserves, and for those only.

The official forest development plan does something almost nobody does: it distinguishes. It says that in the Alpstein only bivouacking is allowed, not camping — and that a wild camp can fall within customary forest-and-pasture access only when it's the portable kind.

We opened the cantonal forest-recreation page and the current forest statute and there's no express rule for one night. The page routes organised events and tent camps into a separate permission topic — which doesn't decide your solo overnight.

A planning fact that's easy to misread: in a building zone, tents standing for up to 14 days can fall outside the construction-permit requirement if the other conditions hold. That isn't a camping right, and it says nothing about public land, the landholder or protected areas.

Installing a tent for camping on land in the State's public or private domain requires authorisation from the competent department. The order says nothing about municipal or ordinary private land.

Installing a caravan or other habitable vehicle needs the same authorisation. It's about installing for habitation — it doesn't resolve sleeping in a lawfully parked ordinary car.

The canton's official geodata guidance says forest camping is expressly prohibited except at designated locations and with prior authorisation, and that wild camping is generally prohibited unless authorised.

In the municipalities article 9 lists there's a duration limit for parking caravans, other camping vehicles and trailers on car parks and public roads — and Sundays and public holidays are excluded from that calculation.

Camping or erecting tents or other shelters inside the Doubs nature reserve is prohibited outside authorised campsites, with a CHF 100 fine. It's limited to the reserve: we don't generalise it to the rest of Jura.

Fine: CHF 100 (current OLiLAO annex, item 1.6: camping or erecting tents or other shelters in the Doubs nature reserve).

Parking caravans, cars or other vehicles inside the reserve falls within the same CHF 100 offence. The official page directs camping-cars to the authorised campsites on its map.

Fine: CHF 100 (the same OLiLAO annex item 1.6, applied to parking caravans, cars or other vehicles inside the reserve).

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)