Wild camping in Canton Appenzell Innerrhoden

Consent instead of a ban, and no cantonal fine. The Campingverordnung allows the occasional pitching of single tents outside campsites with the landowner's consent, up to one month per year.¹ Its penalty articles were repealed in 2005, and the canton's own 2025 report states plainly that no fine for prohibited camping outside camping zones is possible.² The exceptions are the Schwägalp and Fähnerenspitz moor landscapes, where camping is banned outright,³ and the federal game reserve Säntis.⁴

The friendliest written rule in Switzerland

Art. 4 of the 1973 Campingverordnung: "Das gelegentliche Aufstellen von einzelnen Wohnwagen und Zelten ausserhalb bewilligter Campingplätze darf die Dauer eines Monats pro Jahr nicht überschreiten und ist an die Zustimmung des betreffenden Grundeigentümers gebunden." Occasional single tents, up to a month a year, tied to the landowner's consent. That is a permission with conditions, not a ban.¹

The teeth came out in 2005, when the ordinance's penalty articles were repealed. The canton's own Bericht B4 on camping tourism, from June 2025, says it without cushioning: the ordinance contains no penal norm, and for prohibited camping outside the camping zones "besteht keine Strafmöglichkeit", no possibility of a fine exists. The same report calls the whole legal basis "lückenhaft, vage und schwierig zu vollziehen", patchy, vague and hard to enforce.² Rangers in the Alpstein can talk to you; fining you for the tent as such is not among their tools.

Where it is banned anyway

Two moor landscapes carry a real ban: the Standeskommission decision on Schwägalp and Fähnerenspitz says in four words, "Das Campieren ist verboten."³ And the federal layer does not care what the canton tolerates: the game reserve Säntis covers a large part of the high Alpstein, free tenting and camping inside it is a federal offence at CHF 150, and no landowner's consent can lift it.⁴⁵ The boundary runs through walking terrain: at the Lötzlisalpsattel it crosses the saddle itself.

How to check both layers before you go is in our protected areas article. Where Appenzell Innerrhoden sits nationally: our canton comparison.

The bivouac tolerance, from the government itself

No Appenzell norm names the bivouac; the word appears nowhere in the cantonal collection. What exists instead is a stated tolerance. The Standeskommission, quoted in the canton's own report: wild camping is not allowed, "hingegen kann das Biwakieren mit einfachen Zelten über Nacht in Absprache ... bis auf Weiteres toleriert werden", the overnight bivouac with simple tents, in consultation with the local alp staff, can be tolerated until further notice.²

"In Absprache" is the operative part. The consent routes here are real and standing: at the Fälensee the alp tenant's yes is an open offer with a small fee, around CHF 12 per night, 15 with advance notice, in the marked area by the alp. That arrangement is why the Fälensee is the best-known consent arrangement in the Alpstein, and it is the model for how this canton works: ask the Senn, pay the small fee, camp where they point.

One honest caveat about the future: the same B4 report recommends replacing today's tolerance with "a clear statutory regime with a ban in principle". The earliest vehicle is the Landsgemeinde 2028. This article describes the law as of August 2026; if you are reading it years later, check whether the window closed.²

How it plays out

Five researched Alpstein spots in this canton. Note how often the answer is a consent route rather than a yes or a no.

• FälenseeReport

  Allowed with the alp tenant's consent, and the consent is a standing offer: ask at the Fälenalp, pay around CHF 12 per night, 15 with advance notice, and camp in the marked area.

• SeealpseeReport

  No public-law ban and officially unwanted, but no fine either: the route runs through the landowner's consent under Art. 4 of the camping ordinance.

• Saxer LückeReport

  No wild-camping ban in force as of 2026, and the gap itself lies outside the Säntis game reserve. Rangers talk, they cannot fine. A new cantonal regime is pending.

• MeglisalpReport

  Nobody fines you for sleeping out in Appenzell, but a working alp village is not a pitch. The report says what works instead: ask the Senn or sleep in the Berggasthaus.

• LötzlisalpsattelReport

  The Säntis game reserve boundary runs through the saddle. On the high point and the grass to the north and east, outside the reserve, the canton has no camping ban; inside it, CHF 150 federal.