Sleeping in a campervan in Europe: parking or camping, by country

Four countries, four answers

Habits formed at home do not travel: each of the four countries below has its own text. This reading was checked against the texts on 3 November 2026. It does not cover France, which has its own article, Sleeping in a campervan or motorhome in France: the law, or the law of the United Kingdom.

The useful question is not ‘Is wild camping legal in Europe?’ It is narrower. Is the vehicle merely stopped, or have its occupants made a camp around it? The four countries do not answer through the same statute, or the same authority.

Spain already distinguishes a purpose-built autocaravana from a converted van. Portugal’s 48-hour permission is written for vehicles homologated by its own transport institute. Check how the vehicle is classified in its papers before borrowing any of these tests. [4] [5]

Germany: the highway code does not answer the question

Section 12 of the German highway code regulates stopping and parking in general. Leaving the vehicle, or remaining stopped for more than three minutes, counts as parking. The text also tells drivers to park in a way that saves space. It does not define camping, and it does not say whether sleeping aboard is allowed. [1]

There is a night rule, but it is not a campervan rule. Vehicles with a permitted total weight above 7.5 tonnes, and trailers over 2 tonnes, may not park regularly in built-up areas from 10pm to 6am, or on Sundays and public holidays, in residential, recreation, spa or hospital areas. Marked parking spaces are an exception. A van under that weight is not caught by this federal ban. That absence is not a permission. [1]

Federal access law does not fill the gap. It allows people to walk in open country on paths and on some unused land. It says nothing about a night in a vehicle. The camping rules of the 16 Länder were not opened one by one, so there is no national map here. [6]

Italy: article 185 separates a stop from a camp

Article 185 of the Italian highway code puts autocaravans, for ordinary traffic and for the limits in articles 6 and 7, under the same rules as other vehicles. Its paragraph 2 sets the working test. Where stopping is allowed on the carriageway, it is not camping if the vehicle rests on the ground only through its wheels, does not discharge its own waste, apart from engine exhaust, and occupies no more than its own footprint [7]. A transport-ministry directive of 27 April 2006 comments on it [2]. Tents are another matter: see our guide to wild camping in Italy.

The same directive draws two practical lines. Getting out is not camping. Leaving doors open so that they obstruct traffic is a different offence, not automatically camping. Occupying space outside the vehicle does, on this reading, turn the stop into camping. Dumping organic waste or grey and black water on a public road, outside a proper disposal point, is forbidden. [2]

That is not a roaming right. It applies ‘where stopping is allowed’ and ‘on the carriageway’. For private land, a park or a place where parking is already banned, neither article 185 nor the directive says anything. Towns still have traffic powers. The 2006 directive treats a ban aimed only at autocaravans as unlawful when those conditions are met and no traffic or road-structure reason justifies it. That is an administrative reading from 2006, not proof that a current local order has been quashed. [2]

The consolidated text of article 185, read on the official Normattiva portal, sets no fine for camping itself. It punishes dumping waste or water on a public road outside a disposal point with 87 to 344 euros, and raises paid-parking tariffs for motorhomes by 50 % compared with cars in similar car parks of the area [7]. Fines for a particular night (municipal orders, other articles) were not verified.

Spain: being inside is not what makes a camp

Traffic instruction PROT 2026/04, signed on 11 March 2026, uses a similar idea with sharper tests. An autocaravana is parked when it respects the space, the road markings and any time limit. Occupants inside are judged irrelevant in themselves. Interior life must not spill out through awnings, levelling devices or stabiliser supports. [3]

Three conditions are explicit. The engine is off and contact with the ground is through the wheels. Wheel chocks provided for by the general traffic regulations remain allowed in this national instruction. The closed vehicle occupies no extra ground. It emits neither fluids nor noise. If one condition fails, this is no longer a simple parking manoeuvre. [3]

Camping belongs to tourism law, not the traffic code. Municipalities may limit how long a vehicle stays and may ban camping outside authorised places. The instruction relies on a Supreme Court decision of 13 March 2018. It also notes that autonomous communities organise reception areas. Their decrees do not all speak the same way. [3]

In the extracts reproduced, Catalonia and the Basque Country treat a vehicle that deploys equipment, no longer rests only on its wheels, or uses chocks as more than a parked vehicle. That mention of chocks is stricter than the national instruction, which allows those provided for by the traffic regulations. Galicia bans tourist camping outside authorised campsites and defines it as temporary lodging, without the same exclusion in the extract. Valencia, by contrast, takes parking out of its tourism rules whether or not the driver intends to stay the night. The regional decree and the municipal order both have to be read. The national page is not enough. [3]

On interurban roads, stopping and parking are off the carriageway, on the right, leaving the usable hard shoulder clear. On a motorway or autovía they are in principle forbidden outside designated areas. People inside a correctly parked vehicle follow the same logic. The instruction reserves service areas and private land, where the owner may agree other conditions if municipal rules allow. [3]

On public maritime land, the coastal law cited by the instruction sets a minimum of 40 euros per occupied square metre per day for camping. Unauthorised vehicle parking or driving there is fined from 50 to 150 euros. Those figures are not a general fine for every night in a town. [3]

The public traffic page, updated on 22 September 2026, separates a vehicle built for living aboard from a van that was not. The instruction is written mainly for autocaravanas. The same page recalls that camping is allowed only in areas set up for it: campsites or car parks, depending on each autonomous community’s rules. The classification on the vehicle’s papers should be read before every test is copied across. [3] [5]

Portugal: 48 hours, outside protected areas and local rules

Law 66/2021 of 24 August 2021, in force the next day, amends the highway code. It defines parking as immobilising a vehicle, with or without occupants, when that is neither a brief stop nor forced by traffic. Occupants alone do not take the vehicle out of parking. [4]

Article 48 bans parking of autocaravans and similar vehicles in Natura 2000 sites, protected-landscape areas and coastal-plan zones, except in authorised spaces. The fine runs from 60 to 300 euros. Even where parking otherwise follows the rules for other vehicles, three things remain banned: camping and associated activity on a road or public space, discharging organic waste and water outside proper facilities, and occupying more than the vehicle’s perimeter. Those breaches are fined from 30 to 150 euros. [4]

Article 50-A adds a night rule. Pernoita, the overnight stay, and aparcamento are banned in Natura 2000 sites, protected areas and the coastal zones covered, unless a place is expressly authorised. The fine is then 120 to 600 euros. Elsewhere, if there is no municipal regulation, an autocaravan homologated by the Institute for Mobility and Transport may stay overnight for at most 48 hours in the same municipality. Expressly authorised places have no such limit. The law defines pernoita as occupants being present from 10pm to 7am. Breaking the 48-hour regime is fined from 60 to 300 euros. [4]

A Turismo de Portugal guide dated October 2024 gives a different window, 9pm to 7am, and describes aparcamento as parking that exceeds the perimeter: stabilisers, chocks, a step, a table or a waste discharge. The guide is useful for service areas. It does not replace the statute on the start time. The full consolidated code could not be opened, so the detailed statutory definition of aparcamento is not repeated as if it had been read there. [4] [8]

The 48-hour permission is the point most easily misread. It is not a general right for any campervan. It is written for autocaravans homologated by the Portuguese transport institute, and the law, as read, says nothing about vehicles registered or approved abroad. A self-converted van cannot claim it from this article alone. A municipal regulation can also organise or restrict the stay. The law says a geolocation platform may be created. Whether it was operating on 1 November 2026 was not verified. [4]

What to check before staying

The shared negative rule is clear enough. Chairs, an awning or waste water take the stop out of simple parking. What changes is who may still say no: the state, the municipality, an autonomous community, a Land, or a motorway operator. [3] [2] [4] [1]

A motorway rest area, a pay-and-display bay or a supermarket car park does not become a pitch because a vehicle may wait there for a few hours. If the operator or the municipality has not been read for that exact place, the answer remains not verified.

The easiest night to justify is still the one with a written permission: a campsite, a reception area, or a space expressly provided. Everywhere else, the sign and the local rule outrank a habit brought from home.

Joséphine Garand

Nature, photography, walks and travel

Joséphine loves nature for its beauty: walks, photography, travel, nights in a campervan or glamping. Neither an expert nor particularly sporty, she writes and reviews with a newcomer’s eye, which is invaluable for all our content aimed at beginners.

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