The old town of Cesky Krumlov wrapped in a bend of the Vltava, its castle tower above red roofs
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Czechia by campervan: sleeping and camping

Where you may legally sleep in a campervan in Czechia: parking, camping, campsites, stopovers and possible fines. What to know before you go.

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 19 September 2026

Sleeping

Sleeping

Czech law never asks whether you are asleep in your vehicle. It asks whether the vehicle may stand where it is standing. The traffic act governs stopping and standing and says nothing about sleeping, so where your vehicle may legally stand, you may legally sleep in it. Camping is a separate question governed by separate acts, and that is where the real prohibitions are.

A white van parked on a gravel pull-in surrounded by spruce forest
A marked car park outside a village. Nothing out, wheels down, gone by morning

Still parked

  • Sleeping, cooking and eating inside
  • Roof vent and windows open
  • Curtains or blinds up
  • Wheels down and nothing else touching the ground
  • Arriving late and leaving in the morning

Now camping

  • Chairs, a table or a mat outside
  • Awning rolled out
  • A tent pitched beside the van
  • An open fire, anywhere in a forest or within 50 m of its edge
  • Grey water emptied on the ground

The three acts that decide

  • The nature and landscape protection act. It bans camping and fires outside designated places in a national park, and does the same across the whole of a protected landscape area. It also bans driving and standing a vehicle or caravan off roads and marked places.
  • The forest act. It bans driving and parking in a forest, and camping and open fires outside designated places. The fire ban reaches 50 metres from the forest edge. The forest owner can grant an exception in writing.

Who decides, and what to look at

  • The state sets the framework through the three acts above. It is the same across the country.
  • Správa národního parku, the park administration, designates the places where camping or a fire is allowed inside its park, and issues a návštěvní řád, its own visitor rules. Breaching one is a separate offence with a 20,000 Kč ceiling.

Where to sleep, and what to check first

OptionWhat you getWhat to check
Marked car park outside a villageLegal, quiet and usually free. The workhorse option in Czechia.Signs for height, length and overnight limits, and whether the land is inside a CHKO
AutokempThe dense Czech campsite network, often municipal, often beside a river or a pond. Water, waste, showers, electricity.Many are seasonal and shut outside roughly May to September
Pub, farm or guesthouse car parkA spot with permission, which is what makes it legal, and usually a meal attached.Ask inside rather than assume. Czech landlords are used to being asked
Trailhead and ski resort car parksBig, flat, level and built for the traffic. Empty out of season.Whether the trailhead sits inside a national park boundary, where standing off the road is banned
Town car parksA legal place to stand while you walk into the centre.Paid hours, height barriers, and residents-only bays

What the statutes allow as a maximum fine

  • Camping in a forest outside a designated placeup to 10,000 Kč
  • Breaching a national park's visitor rulesup to 20,000 Kč
  • An open fire in a forest, or within 50 m of itup to 30,000 Kč
  • Camping or a fire in a national park or CHKOup to 100,000 Kč

These are statutory ceilings, not typical penalties. The 100,000 Kč figure is what the nature and landscape protection act permits for a banned activity in a specially protected area, not what a ranger writes for one night in a van. A fine issued on the spot is a great deal smaller. The ceilings are worth knowing because they show how seriously the protected areas are treated, not because you should expect one.

Šumava's bivouac scheme is for walkers, not vans. The national park runs seven nouzová nocoviště, emergency overnight sites, at Bučina, Hůrka u Prášil, Modrava, Nové Údolí, Pod Plešným jezerem, Poledník and Strážný. They take 5 to 10 tents, cannot be booked, run 18:00 to 09:00 all year, and the rules are one night only, no fire including camping stoves of any kind, no smoking, no drinking water and carry your rubbish out. They are reached on foot: driving and standing off the road inside the park is banned in the first place.