Wild camping in Austria: what the laws allow, state by state

Can you wild camp in Austria? It depends on where you pitch. In woodland, a federal law sets the rule for the whole country [1]. Outside woodland, there is no single rule: the provisions sit in the laws of the nine states (Bundesländer), some of which let municipalities make their own bylaws [2]. Unlike Scandinavia, Austria has no legal basis allowing camping in the wild, the Austrian Alpine Club (Österreichischer Alpenverein, ÖAV) points out [3]. We read the forest act and the nine state laws in the RISAustria’s federal legal information system: the official database holding the current versions of federal and state laws., as they stood on 29 October 2026. Here is what they ban, what they allow under conditions and what is merely tolerated.

In woodland: only with consent, throughout Austria

What the text says, first. The Forest Act 1975 allows everyone to enter woodland for recreation and to stay there. Any use beyond that, ‘such as resting in one spot after dark, camping in a tent, driving or riding’, needs the woodland owner’s consent, or on forest roads the consent of whoever maintains them [1]. The act also applies in the forest’s ‘combat zone’ at the treeline, the KampfzoneUnder the forest act, the zone between the natural limit of tree growth and the actual edge of closed forest. [1]. What that means for you: without the owner’s permission, a night in the woods is banned in all nine states; with it, it is allowed, as long as no state law or protected area stands in the way.

Austria’s federal portal, oesterreich.gv.at, also counts sleeping in a vehicle as such a use [4]. Closed areas of woodland are entirely off limits: the owner may, for example, temporarily close felling sites or storm-damaged areas, and marks them with signs [1]. The penalty is modest: using woodland without the necessary consent, or entering a closed area, risks up to €150 [1].

Nine states, three situations: an overview

Outside woodland, the laws speak of ‘Zelten’ (tent camping), ‘Campieren’ or, in Tyrol and Vienna, ‘Kampieren’, and each draws the line differently. Three situations stand out. Banned: the law forbids nights outside campsites, and a breach is an administrative offenceIn Austria, a breach of an administrative rule, punished by an authority with a fine. (Verwaltungsübertretung). Allowed with conditions: there is no state-wide ban, but municipalities, landowners or protected areas can rule a night out. Tolerated: something is not actually allowed, but an authority states in writing that it accepts it; we only mention such tolerance with its source.

Where tents are banned: five states

Tyrol has the clearest rule. The Tyrolean Camping Act 2001 bans camping (Kampieren) outside campsites, except on land for which a municipality has made a temporary exception by bylaw [12]. Camping means spending the night in mobile accommodation such as tents, caravans, cars or motorhomes ‘as part of tourism’ [12]. BivouackingIn mountaineering, spending the night in a makeshift shelter or under the open sky, for example in a bivvy bag. (Biwakieren) in high alpine terrain is not covered, ‘for a short period required by the occasion’ [12]. A breach costs up to €600, even an attempt is punishable, and the authority must order you to remove your shelter within a set time [12].

Carinthia bans pitching a tent or parking a caravan, motorhomes included, in open countryside outside officially authorised campsites; ‘alpine bivouacking’, among other things, is exempt [6]. The fine can reach €3,630, or €7,260 with aggravating circumstances or for a repeat offence [6]. Lower Austria bans setting up or parking caravans, motorhomes or ‘mobile dwellings’ on undeveloped land outside built-up areas and outside approved campsites [7]. The law does not mention tents; the federal portal and the ÖAV count them as mobile dwellings [8, 17]. The text makes no exception for mountaineers, and its maximum fine is the highest of the nine states: up to €14,500, and an attempt is punishable [7].

In Burgenland, camping in open countryside outside officially authorised camping or mobile home sites is banned, with fines of up to €3,600, or up to €7,300 for repeated and serious offences [5]. Finally, Vienna’s 1985 camping bylaw (Kampierverordnung) bans, in outdoor public places outside campsites, even laying out and using a sleeping bag, putting up a tent, and parking a car, motorhome or caravan to live or sleep in [14]. The fine is up to €700 [15].

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Where the municipality decides: Upper Austria, Salzburg, Vorarlberg

Upper Austria’s Tourism Act 2018 contains no general ban. It does, however, allow a municipality to decide by bylaw that camping outside campsites is only allowed in certain places or on certain occasions, is banned in certain places, or even across the whole municipality [13]. Even where a bylaw applies, camping remains allowed if the person entitled to use the land tolerates it without seeking any financial gain. Breaching a bylaw risks up to €3,000 [13].

In Salzburg, the mayor can ban camping outside campsites if it significantly harms, among other things, safety, farming or the natural balance, and the municipal council can decide by bylaw where it is allowed and where it is not [9]. Some municipalities use this to ban, for example within the village, putting up tents, caravans or motorhomes to sleep in at night, the federal portal says [20]. A breach can cost up to €10,000; bivouacking in high alpine terrain is outside the scope of the law [9]. Salzburg’s Nature Conservation Act, however, protects alpine ÖdlandUnder Salzburg’s Nature Conservation Act, land above the zone of closed forest that is cultivated neither for farming nor for forestry., the uncultivated land above the forest: measures that could harm it need a permit from the nature conservation authority [19]. Whether a single night in a tent counts, the act does not say.

Vorarlberg follows the same pattern: the mayor must ban the setting up of tents, caravans and similar mobile shelters outside campsites by formal decision if certain interests are ‘grossly harmed’, and the municipal council can restrict them to certain places by bylaw [16]. Pitching regardless risks up to €700 [16]. Styria, finally, has no provision expressly dealing with camping outside campsites, according to the federal portal [11]. Its 1921 act on freedom of access in the mountains opens the uncultivated land above the treeline to visitors, except mountain pastures used for something other than grazing: anyone may go there [10]. The ÖAV concludes that camping on this land should be possible too [17]. That is the club’s reading, not the text of the law.

Above the treeline: bivouacs, emergency bivouacs, shelters

The exceptions for mountaineers are tersely worded and defined nowhere. Tyrol and Salzburg exclude bivouacking in high alpine terrain from their camping laws, and Carinthia exempts ‘alpine bivouacking’ from its tent ban [12, 9, 6]. How far that goes is read in different ways. For Tyrol, the federal portal takes it to mean a single makeshift night during a mountain tour above the treeline, planned or forced by a sudden change in the weather, an injury or darkness [21]; for Carinthia, by contrast, it says a planned bivouac that does not arise from an emergency is banned [18]. In its overview, the ÖAV warns in general that a deliberate bivouac is treated like a night in a tent, but for Tyrol it gives the same reading as the federal portal [17]. Anyone planning a bivouac is therefore relying on an interpretation, not on a clear text; if in doubt, ask the district authority.

The alpine clubs’ bivouac sheltersSmall, unstaffed emergency huts made of wood or metal in the high mountains. (Biwakschachteln) are mostly meant for emergencies too. According to the alpine club, the Fleischer-Biwak on the Hochschwab is an unlocked emergency room with no beds and no water, where a planned overnight stay is not possible [23]. For the Konrad Schuster Biwak below the Lalidererspitze in the Karwendel, the Alpine Gesellschaft Gipfelstürmer, the Alpenverein Innsbruck and the Karwendel Nature Park urge visitors to use it only as intended: emergency bivouac shelters are not freely accessible self-catering huts, and a planned stay does not match their intended use [24].

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National parks and protected areas: mostly off limits

In protected areas the rules tighten, even in states with no general ban. In the Salzburg part of the Hohe Tauern National Park, camping is banned in the outer zones, except tents on authorised sites, alpine bivouacking and youth camps; in the core zones, anything banned in the outer zones counts as a prohibited intervention [25]. In the Kalkalpen National Park in Upper Austria, a regulation of January 2026 bans spending the night and camping anywhere other than the places provided and marked for the purpose [26].

The Gesäuse National Park in Styria bans camping and planned bivouacking across the whole park, car parks included. The only exception, in the park’s own English: ‘Bivouacs for alpinists in case of (mountain) distress are tolerated’ [27]. That is one of the few written tolerances we found. More generally, the ÖAV names national parks, nature reserves and special protection areas (Sonderschutzgebiete) as the protected areas with the strictest rules, and advises checking before a tour with the area’s management or with the nature conservation departments of the state and district [17].

Sleeping in a car or campervan

A motorhome is not a free pass, and nor is the estate car. Most of the state laws mention vehicles expressly, each in its own way.

Carinthia also bans driving motor vehicles in open countryside off the areas meant for moving or parked traffic, or parking them there; parking at the roadside is allowed [6]. And in the Gesäuse National Park, sleeping in the car parks is banned too [27].

What a breach costs

The amounts in the table are ceilings, not set rates. Under the Administrative Penal Act (Verwaltungsstrafgesetz), a fine depends on how important the protected interest is and how seriously the offence harms it; in ordinary proceedings, how far the offender is at fault and their income and assets also count [29]. For certain offences, an authorised officer may collect an on-the-spot fineA fine collected on the spot by an authorised enforcement officer, at an amount set in advance. (Organstrafverfügung) of up to €90, if a regulation sets the amount [29]. Carinthia has done so for pitching a tent in open countryside: €50 [30]. The highest ceilings apply to serious cases and repeat offences, for which Carinthia and Burgenland set their own maximums [6, 5].

Sleeping out legally: huts, winter rooms, permission

The ÖAV itself points to the alternative: the dense network of mountain huts, cheap and ‘quite definitely legal’ [3]. In the alpine clubs’ category I huts, a place in a dormitory or in the winter roomA simple room in a mountain hut that serves as shelter when the hut is not staffed. (Winterraum) costs adult members at most €15 under the tariff rules, and at most €18 from 2027; non-members pay at least €12 more [31, 32]. Our comparison of alpine club memberships sets out what joining costs.

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And a tent beside the hut? The alpine clubs’ hut and tariff rules cover overnight stays, meals and self-catering, but say nothing about a tent next door [31]. We found no general tolerance in the ÖAV’s rules: the state law and the landowner’s word are what count. The owner’s consent helps, but not everywhere. Under the forest act it makes camping in woodland lawful, and in Upper Austria it even applies despite a municipal bylaw, as long as no financial gain is sought [1, 13]; Tyrol’s Camping Act, on the other hand, makes no exception for it [12].

Before you go: the checks

1. The state: in Tyrol, Carinthia, Lower Austria and Burgenland, tents outside campsites are banned in principle, in Vienna in public places; in Upper Austria, Salzburg and Vorarlberg, municipalities have a say, as the table above shows.
2. The municipality: is there a bylaw or a ban by the mayor? The municipality, the district authority or the state’s nature conservation department can tell you [3, 20].
3. The place: woodland, open countryside or uncultivated alpine land, national park or nature reserve?
4. The owner: in woodland you need the owner’s consent, on forest roads that of whoever maintains them [1].
5. Emergencies: bivvy bag, foil blanket, head torch, and the numbers 140 and 112 memorised [33, 34].

Austria has no right to camp wherever you like; it has nine state laws and many municipal bylaws instead, and every rule has a date: we read these on 29 October 2026. So check before you go: the current version of the state law in the RIS, and the bylaw of the municipality where you plan to sleep; a rule from last summer will not cover you this summer. For the neighbours, see our articles on wild camping in Germany, Switzerland and France; to prepare your first night out, our guide to your first wild camp.

Arnaud Couderc

Fact-checking, regulations and safety

Arnaud Couderc reviews our contributors’ articles and writes for Outfarer about regulations, safety, fishing, the sea and outdoor pursuits. He traces every rule back to its official text and every figure to its source, so that you set off with sound benchmarks.

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