A bend in the Moselle seen from a castle wall, a slate-roofed town and steep terraced vineyards on the far bank
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Germany by campervan

German law lets you park a campervan wherever any vehicle may park, and one night's sleep inside to restore your fitness to drive is tolerated. It is a tolerance, not a right to stay: once you have arrived somewhere and settled in, you are camping, and camping outside authorised sites is regulated by each Bundesland. Everything else before you cross the border: the green sticker, why there is no toll for your vehicle, what things cost, and when to go where.

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 18 September 2026

Basics

Basics

The single thing that catches visitors out in Germany is Sunday. Shops are closed on Sundays and public holidays under the Ladenschlussgesetz, and that is not a local quirk: it is the shape of the week. Bakeries open for a few hours on Sunday morning, petrol stations sell a small range of travel goods all day, and everything else waits until Monday. Shop for two days on Saturday.

A half-timbered German market square with a town hall and flower boxes
Saturday afternoon. By Sunday morning every shutter on this square is down

The German week

  • Sunday is closed. Supermarkets, DIY stores and almost all shops. Under the Ladenschlussgesetz Sundays and public holidays are shop-free days, and the same applies on a public holiday that falls midweek.
  • Bakeries are the exception. The same act lets ordinances permit Sunday sales of bread and cakes, milk, fresh fruit, flowers and newspapers. In practice that means a Bäckerei open from about 07:00 to 11:00.

Power, water and getting online

  • 230V, 50Hz, type F. Campsite and Stellplatz hookups are the blue CEE connector. Many machines are coin operated and sell power by the kilowatt hour rather than by the night.
  • Tap water is safe and cold water from any tap in a public building is drinking water. Ask for Leitungswasser in a restaurant, though it is not the custom and you may be offered bottled.

German public holidays are not moved when they fall on a weekend, and 2026 loses four of them that way. The ones that matter for a trip are the other direction: Ascension on Thursday 14 May and Whit Monday on 25 May both create long weekends when every Stellplatz within two hours of a city fills up.

Common questions about Germany by campervan

Can you sleep in a campervan in Germany?

Yes, for one night, where parking is allowed. German road law treats a stop to restore your fitness to drive as ordinary use of the road, so sleeping inside a lawfully parked vehicle is tolerated. It is not a right to stay. Once you have arrived at your destination and settled in, the stop is no longer covered, as the Schleswig-Holstein Oberlandesgericht held on 15 June 2020 when it upheld a 100 euro fine against a driver who slept in her motorhome on a public car park at Sankt Peter-Ording.

Is wild camping legal in Germany?

No. Camping outside an authorised site is regulated by each of the sixteen Bundesländer through their nature conservation and forest acts, and by municipal ordinances on top, so the answer changes at a state and often a town boundary. Schleswig-Holstein is the clearest: its nature conservation act allows a motorhome to be set up and used only on a designated site. Sleeping inside a parked vehicle with nothing deployed outside is a different thing and is tolerated for one night.

Is there a ten hour rule for overnight parking in Germany?

No. The ten hour figure appears in no German statute. It is a tolerance that police and local authorities are widely reported to apply to a single overnight stop made to restore fitness to drive. What matters legally is the purpose of the stop and not its length: a rest on the way to somewhere is ordinary use of the road, and settling in at the place you came to visit is not.

Do I need an Umweltplakette in Germany with a foreign vehicle?

Yes. Germany has 36 environmental zones and all of them may be entered only with the green Umweltplakette, and foreign-registered vehicles are not exempt. You buy it from a vehicle registration office, a TÜV or DEKRA test centre or online for roughly 5 to 20 euros, it goes inside the windscreen and it lasts the life of the vehicle. Driving into a zone without a valid sticker is a 100 euro fine.