Free camping in Europe, country by country
Guides
Read this before you book the ferry.
How free camping works in Europe
The three things a first-time visitor gets wrong: what is official, what is tolerated, and what will get you moved on at midnight.
What is an aire?
A public parking area set aside for motorhomes, usually with water and a place to empty a toilet cassette. Often free, and never hidden.
Wild camping, free camping, and aires are three different things
One is a legal question, one is a price, and one is a type of place. Mixing them up is how people end up with a fine.
A first European motorhome trip
Tolls, gas bottles, water, service points, and the paperwork. Written for drivers arriving from the UK, the US, Australia or Canada.
Next step
Learn what an aire is before you drive to one
Almost everything on the map for Europe is an aire, a Stellplatz, a sosta or an official campsite. Fifteen minutes on what those are, what the service point does, and how you are expected to behave will save you a lot of guessing at the barrier.
Understand aires →