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Germany by campervan: sleeping and camping

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

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 18 September 2026

Sleeping

Sleeping

You may park a campervan anywhere a vehicle may park, and one night's sleep inside to restore your fitness to drive is tolerated. Parking itself is governed by the Straßenverkehrsordnung, which says nothing about sleeping. What decides the case is road law: the Bundesfernstraßengesetz states there is no Gemeingebrauch, no ordinary public use of a road, where somebody uses it not mainly for traffic but for other purposes. Resting so you can drive on is still traffic. Living in the vehicle is not.

A row of white touring caravans parked on grass under autumn trees, a hose reel and a power box standing between them
The German answer. Water, waste, power on the pitch, and usually under 15 euros

Still parked

  • Sleeping, cooking and eating inside with the door shut
  • Roof vent open, blinds down, engine off
  • Resting on the wheels, taking up one marked space
  • One night, moving on in the morning

Now camping

  • Chairs, a table or a mat outside
  • Awning wound out, levelling legs down
  • Grey water or a toilet cassette emptied on the ground
  • Staying a second and third night in the same spot
  • Sleeping at the place you came to visit rather than on the way to it

Where to sleep, cheapest first

OptionPriceWhat you get
Street or car parkfreeLegal wherever a vehicle may park, subject to signs, height barriers and time limits. One night, nothing outside the van.
Landvergnügen farm or vineyard€69.90 a year24 hours at any of around 2,100 hosts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. No facilities promised, usually something to buy.
Stellplatzoften under €15Fresh water, a grey water drain, a toilet point and often power, sold by the coin. Municipal ones are the cheapest and some are free.
Campsite€41 averageACSI's 2026 German average, for two adults and two children with electricity and tourist tax. Off season and inland is far less.
Autobahn servicesfreeLegal, noisy, and the worst place in Germany to leave a van unattended overnight.

Water, waste and showers

  • Ver- und Entsorgung is the phrase to look for. A Stellplatz service point takes fresh water, grey water and the toilet cassette, and most will sell you the use of it for a couple of euros without an overnight stay.
  • Never empty grey water or a cassette on the ground. It is the behaviour that gets a town's Stellplatz closed, and in a protected area it is an environmental offence in its own right.

Who decides

  • The federal level sets the parking rules in the StVO and the notion of Gemeingebrauch in road law. That is the part that makes one night's rest lawful.
  • The sixteen Länder legislate on camping, through their nature conservation and forest acts. Schleswig-Holstein is the strictest and the clearest: its nature conservation act allows a motorhome to be set up and used only on a designated site.

What the fines run to, as published

  • Parking offence, from€10
  • Sleeping outside a designated site, Schleswig-Holstein case€100
  • Camping outside an authorised site, reported range by Land€10 to €200
  • Camping in a Landschaftsschutzgebiet, reported range€15 to €1,500
  • Camping in a Naturschutzgebiet, reported range€50 to €2,500

The coast and the mountains are where this is enforced. North Sea and Baltic resort towns run their own overnight parking bans and check them, Alpine valleys cap or close trailhead car parks in season, and national park ordinances ban camping outright. The two upper ranges above are figures reported from Länder penalty catalogues rather than from one national list, and the 100 euros is the amount one court confirmed. Read the sign, and if there is none, ask.