The glacial lake and chalets at Balea Lac, with the Transfagarasan switchbacking across the slopes behind
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Romania by campervan: sleeping and camping

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

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 19 September 2026

Sleeping

Sleeping

Romanian law treats a parked vehicle and a camp as two different things, and the hard rules are about the camp. The road code defines stopping, standing and parking, and never mentions sleeping. Stopping is immobilisation for up to five minutes, longer is standing, and parking is standing where a space is signed for it. Where a vehicle may stand is left to the Regulament and to the sign.

A sealed road running between tall spruce towards a bare mountain peak, with a red car parked on the verge
A marked place to stop below the ridge. Wheels down, nothing outside, gone in the morning

Still parked

  • Sleeping, cooking and eating inside
  • Roof vent and windows open
  • Wheels down and nothing else touching the ground
  • Standing where the sign and the Regulament allow a vehicle to stand
  • 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
  • A fire anywhere outside an arranged hearth
  • Driving off the road onto the ground of a protected area

The statute that decides

  • The law on protected natural areas. It covers camping outside a specially arranged place and breach of a camping place's rules, at 3,000 to 6,000 lei for an individual and 25,000 to 50,000 for a legal person.
  • Visitor access and movement outside built-up land, in natural habitats, off approved and signposted tourist routes, falls in the same 3,000 to 6,000 lei band.

Who decides, and what to read

  • The state sets the frame through the protected areas law, and it is the same everywhere a protected area exists.
  • Each park administration writes its own Regulament, designates the places where a tent or a fire is allowed, and can be stricter than the statute. Breaching it is its own contravention.

What the protected areas law sets for an individual, as ranges

  • Breaching the protected area's own Regulament3,000 to 5,000 lei
  • Camping on a protected area outside an arranged place3,000 to 6,000 lei
  • Moving off approved routes in natural habitats3,000 to 6,000 lei
  • Driving a motor vehicle onto a protected area off roads5,000 to 10,000 lei
  • Feeding a wild animal in a protected area5,000 to 10,000 lei

These are statutory ranges, not typical penalties, and they are what the ordinance sets for an individual. A company pays between five and ten times as much for the same act. An offender can settle at half the statutory minimum if it is paid on the spot or within 48 hours, so the real figure for a first camping contravention is 1,500 lei rather than 6,000. The ranges are worth knowing because they show how seriously the protected areas are treated.

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 Romania.Whether the land is inside a protected natural area, and what the sign says
Campsite or pensiune yardWater, waste, electricity, and often dinner. Guesthouses frequently let a van stay in the yard.Many are seasonal and closed outside roughly May to September
Park administration's arranged camping placeThe one legal way to pitch inside a national park, in the places the administration designates and signs.The park's own Regulament, which is stricter than the statute and differs park by park
Trailhead and ski resort car parksBig, flat and built for the traffic. Empty out of season.Whether the trailhead is inside the park boundary, where driving off the road is a contravention
Sheepfold and mountain hut ground, with permissionA spot with consent, which is the thing that makes it legal, and usually cheese attached.Ask first. Dogs at a sheepfold are working dogs and take their job seriously

Two parks show what a Regulament adds. In Piatra Craiului, camping is allowed only in specially arranged places and in other places the administration designates and signs, four of which are named in its Regulament. Trenching around a tent is banned, a bivouac is for emergencies only with no fire and the tent up between sunset and sunrise, fires are allowed only in arranged hearths, and motor vehicles may use public roads only. In Retezat, a tent goes up only in designated zones, open fire is banned across the whole park except at sheepfolds and in the sustainable development zones, and motor vehicles are limited to roads open to public access or to journeys the administration has approved. A Retezat visiting ticket is 10 lei per person, VAT included, valid seven days however many times you enter, and under 18s go free.