Austria by campervan: sleeping and camping
Where you may legally sleep in a campervan in Austria: parking, camping, campsites, stopovers and possible fines. What to know before you go.
Published 18 September 2026Last checked 18 September 2026
Currency
Euro
EUR. Cards in towns, cash in huts and at small hosts
Language
German
Austrian German. English is common in tourist valleys
Driving
Right
130 km/h motorway, 80 km/h above 3.5 tonnes
Power
230V, type F
Same two-pin plug as most of Europe
Tap water
Safe to drink
Ask for Leitungswasser
Emergency
112
144 ambulance, 140 mountain rescue
Sleeping
Sleeping
There is no national rule. Austria legislates camping nine times over, once per Bundesland, and the instruments are not even the same kind: Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg use a camping act, Lower Austria, Carinthia, Burgenland and Vienna use a nature conservation act, Upper Austria uses its tourism act, and Styria has no such provision at all. A night that is nobody's business in Styria is a 14,500 euro offence in Lower Austria.
What each state's law says
| State | The instrument | What it says | Maximum fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyrol | Tiroler Campinggesetz 2001, the state camping act | Camping outside a campsite is banned unless the municipality has passed an exempting ordinance. The act excludes from its definition of camping any stay that merely serves to restore fitness to drive. | €600 for camping itself, €7,300 for the other offences under the act |
| Lower Austria | NÖ Naturschutzgesetz 2000, the state nature protection act | Outside the built-up settlement area, setting up or parking caravans, motorhomes or mobile homes on green land outside an approved campsite is prohibited. | €14,500, plus substitute imprisonment up to six weeks |
| Carinthia | Kärntner Naturschutzgesetz 2002, the state nature protection act | Banned in the open landscape outside approved campsites and outside garden ground attached to a house. Alpine bivouac and short-term parking on areas serving stationary traffic are exempt. | €3,630, or €7,260 on repeat. €50 on the spot |
| Burgenland | Bgld. Naturschutz- und Landschaftspflegegesetz, the state nature protection act | Same shape as Carinthia: banned in the open landscape, with short-term parking on areas serving stationary traffic expressly exempt. | €3,600, or €7,300 for repeated and serious offences |
| Vienna | Wiener Naturschutzgesetz, the city nature protection act | In Grünland it is banned to camp or to set up and use a caravan, motorhome or mobile home, except on a Zeltplatz or garden ground. Driving and parking off the roads in Grünland is separately banned. | €21,000, or €35,000 on repeat |
Still a rest stop
- Sleeping inside with the door shut and nothing deployed
- On the wheels, in one marked bay, engine off
- On a road or a car park rather than on green land
- Arriving late, leaving in the morning
- In Tyrol: a stay that only restores your fitness to drive
Now camping
- Chairs, a table or a mat outside the vehicle
- Awning wound out, levelling legs down
- A second and third night on the same spot
- Parked on green land or in the open landscape
- In Upper Austria: more than 90 minutes in three hours in or beside the vehicle
Statutory maximum fines, as the acts set them
Where a night is straightforward
- A Stellplatz is a pitch built for one or two nights, usually with water, a grey water drain and a toilet point, and often power sold by the coin. It is the answer Austria points you at.
- Campsites. One European directory listed 259 in Austria in September 2026. ACSI put the 2026 European high season average at 38.60 euros a night for two adults and two children with electricity and tourist tax, and gives no separate Austrian figure.
Water, waste and the rules that travel with you
- Ver- und Entsorgung is the phrase to look for. A Stellplatz service point takes fresh water in, grey water out and the toilet cassette, and most will sell the use of it without an overnight stay.
- Never empty grey water or a cassette on the ground. In a protected area it is an offence in its own right, and it is the single behaviour that gets a village Stellplatz closed.
These are the ceilings the acts set, not what anyone typically pays. Carinthia is the one state that publishes an on-the-spot figure, 50 euros, in its Naturschutz-Organstrafverfügungsverordnung, and Tyrol caps municipal wardens at 40 euros. Everything above that is what an administrative authority may impose, and the top of a range is reserved for damage and repeat offences. Municipal ordinances are not published centrally, so the sign at the car park is the only thing that answers the question for that car park.