How many nights did you camp on the trip around the world?

I only kept count for the first 20 months: 227 wild-camping nights by the time we reached China. After that I stopped counting, but the tent stayed home — nearly 600 nights in the first one, and plenty more in its replacement. The map shows the nights that have a GPS photo, and it keeps growing as I dig more out.

How did you find a camping spot every night?

Late in the afternoon we'd start looking: a wood, an orchard, a patch of waste ground out of sight of the road. If someone was around we asked permission, and more than once the permission turned into dinner or a bed indoors. Pitching and packing the tent became as routine as brushing our teeth.

Is wild camping legal in all those countries?

In plenty of them it isn't, and in others it depends on the region. Our rule was discretion: arrive at dusk, leave early, leave no trace. Across hundreds of tent nights in twenty-odd countries almost nobody said a word — and when someone did turn up, the conversation ended in help far more often than in trouble.

Which tent survived that many nights?

A Hilleberg Nammatj 3 GT: it was home for nearly 600 nights, from Scotland to Malaysia, where we swapped it for a lighter MSR Hubba Tour 2. The odd night on the map was spent in a borrowed tent along the way. The full gear list, piece by piece, is on the gear page.

The free nights map

Every pin on this map is a night we slept for free, with its photo and its real coordinates. Woods, orchards, beaches, deserts and the odd abandoned building, from Scotland in 2013 to the United States in 2018.

None of them are placed by eye — the pins come straight from the GPS in the original photos. The tent was home: a Hilleberg that took nearly 600 nights before retiring in Malaysia, plus the odd borrowed one along the way — and finding it a spot each evening was as routine as it gets.

For the first 20 months I kept count: 227 wild-camping nights by the time we reached China. After that I stopped logging, but the routine never changed; the photos just need digging out.

The catch? There isn't one. I've already told you about the 12 places to sleep for free; this is where it actually happened.

The map keeps growing — I still have years of photos to go through. When a pin lands in the garden of someone who took us in, the location is blurred; nobody wants the internet knowing where they live. Everything else sits exactly where you see it.

Go on, poke around the map! And if you're wondering what living like this cost, the full accounts are further down.

111

nights with a photo

countries

227

logged wild camps

~600

nights in the first tent

The log only covers the first 20 months, as far as China. I never counted the rest of the trip: this map is the evidence that's left.

The map · 111 nights with a photo

Tap a pin to see that night's photo. The map keeps growing.

Every night, one by one

The round the world (2014–2018) · 104 nights

France · 5 nights

Spain · 12 nights

Portugal · 1 night

Slovenia · 2 nights

Bosnia · 5 nights

Montenegro · 1 night

Albania · 2 nights

Greece · 3 nights

Turkey · 2 nights

Georgia · 3 nights

Armenia · 2 nights

Iran · 6 nights

Kyrgyzstan · 9 nights

Kazakhstan · 2 nights

China · 11 nights

Japan · 4 nights

Laos · 3 nights

Thailand · 2 nights

Malaysia · 6 nights

Indonesia · 7 nights

Australia · 5 nights

New Zealand · 5 nights

United States · 6 nights

Scotland 2013 — the rehearsal · 6 nights

Scotland · 6 nights

Before the big trip · 1 night

England · 1 night

Before you go

Sleeping for free was half the budget

€3.16 per person, per day. The trip's full accounts — and the playbook to do it yourself — are in the budget dossier.

See the numbers →

Frequently asked questions

What you ask me most

How many nights did you camp on the trip around the world?: I only kept count for the first 20 months: 227 wild-camping nights by the time we reached China. After that I stopped counting, but the tent stayed home — nearly 600 nights in the first one, and plenty more in its replacement. The map shows the nights that have a GPS photo, and it keeps growing as I dig more out.
How did you find a camping spot every night?: Late in the afternoon we'd start looking: a wood, an orchard, a patch of waste ground out of sight of the road. If someone was around we asked permission, and more than once the permission turned into dinner or a bed indoors. Pitching and packing the tent became as routine as brushing our teeth.
Is wild camping legal in all those countries?: In plenty of them it isn't, and in others it depends on the region. Our rule was discretion: arrive at dusk, leave early, leave no trace. Across hundreds of tent nights in twenty-odd countries almost nobody said a word — and when someone did turn up, the conversation ended in help far more often than in trouble.
Which tent survived that many nights?: A Hilleberg Nammatj 3 GT: it was home for nearly 600 nights, from Scotland to Malaysia, where we swapped it for a lighter MSR Hubba Tour 2. The odd night on the map was spent in a borrowed tent along the way. The full gear list, piece by piece, is on the gear page.