Wild camping by canton in Switzerland, and the claim everyone repeats

"Only Aargau and Obwalden allow it" is the most repeated canton-level fact about Swiss wild camping. Half of it is right and cited from the wrong document. The other half is about something else entirely.

The canton is usually not the level that decides your night. Most cantons have no camping law at all, which is why the answer nearly always comes from a commune instead. Where a canton has legislated, it is worth reading the actual article rather than the summary: Obwalden's law starts by prohibiting camping outside campsites and then writes a single-night exception into the next article but one.1

All 26 cantons, A to Z

The short answer per canton, and the link to the full legal picture with the named statutes.

  • AargauThe famous claim, enumerated

    Not banned, not permitted: the police confirm no per-se offence exists. Three river decrees carry the real CHF 100 camping bans.

  • Appenzell AusserrhodenTotal silence

    Zero hits for campieren, zelten and Biwak across the entire cantonal collection. Communes, landowners and the Säntis game reserve decide.

  • Appenzell InnerrhodenNo fine

    The penalty articles of the camping ordinance were repealed in 2005, so no cantonal camping fine exists. The lawful route is the owner's or alp tenant's consent.4

  • Basel-LandschaftNo law, 120 ordinances

    The general acts are silent and 120 reserve decrees each ban Campieren, with fines reaching CHF 100,000 in severe cases.

  • Basel-StadtClosed by Allmend law

    Zero camping words in the collection and no campsite in the canton; a tent on public ground is a permit-bound special use.

  • BernNo cantonal ban, strict communes

    No cantonal camping ban, and yet some of the strictest rules in Switzerland: Lauterbrunnen up to CHF 5,000 municipality-wide, Grindelwald with no above-treeline exception, Kandersteg banning tents outright.

  • FribourgOne reserve clause

    No general rule; the Vanil Noir reserve bans camping, its German text still spelling kampieren with a K. The Kaiseregg report walks the silent side.

  • GenevaThe forest says no

    No general ban and no bivouac word in 864 acts; tents are proscribed in forests at up to CHF 60,000, and occasional camps up to 21 days sit outside the facility regime.

  • GlarusNo camping norm

    No cantonal camping norm at all, which decides the Fessisee. Fire is the expensive part here instead: the forest act reaches CHF 20,000.

  • GraubündenNo cantonal ban, communes act

    Nothing cantonal, but communes prohibit municipality-wide on their own authority. Silvaplana reaches CHF 30,000 through building law rather than camping law.5

  • JuraNew decree at La Gruère

    No general rule; the 2024 La Gruère decree bans camping in all its forms, and the Doubs reserve carries the canton's only CHF 100 fixed fine.

  • LucerneThe famous ban is zoning law

    § 174 of the planning act regulates land use beyond 30 days, not a night in a tent. The real bans are per-reserve, and the alpine one only catches tents that stay.

  • NeuchâtelOne bivouac window

    No blanket ban, a triple lock at the Creux du Van, and the 2023 plan expressly admits the bivouac in one named perimeter.

  • NidwaldenOne biotope ordinance

    Tenting and camping banned in the listed moor and dry-grassland sites; otherwise silent, with no on-the-spot camping fine anywhere in the canton.

  • ObwaldenOne night, conditional

    GDB 971.4 Art. 6 prohibits camping outside campsites; Art. 8 permits a single overnight stay without a permit if no public or private interests are impaired. The 1977 ordinance everyone links was repealed in 2015.1

  • SchaffhausenThe Randen bans motorsport

    No cantonal camping norm, and the Randen rules ban advertising and motorsport rather than tents. The towns run CHF 1,000 permit regimes.

  • SchwyzNine priced reserves

    No blanket ban; resting or camping in nine reserves the fine list names costs CHF 150, the Rothenthurm moor among them. Off the list, communal protection ordinances decide.

  • SolothurnThree fines, none for tents

    The complete cantonal fine list has three items and no camping norm exists anywhere; even the ridge reserves carry no written camping ban.

  • St. GallenCommunal bans, cantonal price

    No cantonal ban, but the fixed-penalty list prices breaching a communal camping ban at CHF 80. Bad Ragaz expressly exempts the occasional single tent.

  • ThurgauThe word does not appear

    Not one cantonal norm on camping or overnighting outdoors, by design: the conduct rules are communal, and Arbon shows the permit pattern.

  • TicinoStatutory bivouac exception

    The one canton that bans camping in a statute and exempts the mountain tent-bivouac in the very next paragraph: Legge sui campeggi Art. 2. Outside the exception the Municipio fines CHF 50 to 10,000.

  • UriNo cantonal ban

    No camping prohibition at cantonal level, and on Korporation Uri ground a night is pre-permitted. The canton page carries the whole picture.

  • ValaisNo cantonal ban, folklore says otherwise

    The cantonal ban everyone repeats is not in force; five cantonal acts read, none contains one. Zermatt and four communes above Lake Geneva carry the real prohibitions.

  • VaudFacility law only

    The camping act defines campgrounds and never regulates camping outside them; the nature act has no camping provision. Communes decide, from silence to permit routes.

  • ZugCHF 100, reserves only

    The camping fine exists only inside nature protection areas. The 1962 tent ordinance treated off-site camping as permissible and was repealed without replacement.

  • ZurichOrdinances, not a ban

    No general rule; protection ordinances ban Lagern, Zelten und Kampieren in their zones, with a CHF 50,000 frame behind them and no fixed penalty anywhere.

Obwalden: right claim, wrong law

Obwalden is the canton people mean, and the substance holds up. What does not hold up is the citation. The document that circulates is GDB 971.41, the Verordnung über das Kampieren of 1977, and it was repealed on 28 February 2015.2 The law in force is GDB 971.4, the Gesetz über das Campieren of 4 December 2014, in force since 1 March 2015.

Read it and the structure is the opposite of the summary. Art. 6 sets the baseline: pitching tents, caravans and motorhomes for camping outside authorised campsites is not permitted. The permission everyone quotes is two articles later, at Art. 8, headed "Einmaliges Übernachten": for a single overnight stay a tent, caravan or motorhome may be pitched without a permit outside authorised campsites, provided no public or private interests are impaired, at your own risk.1

That condition is the part that never survives the summary, and it is doing real work. It is also why Art. 11 penalises camping without permission and, separately, repeatedly breaching the ban: one night is carved out, a pattern is not. There is a second route in Art. 7 para. 3 as well, easy to miss: with the owner's consent you may camp temporarily and free of charge on the plot of a residential house.

Aargau: a different question answered

The Aargau half of the claim is a category error that has been copied so many times it now reads as fact. Every source that describes the actual rule describes a vehicle tolerance: one night on a public parking area that carries no explicit prohibition, leave in the morning, and no camping behaviour, meaning do not put the table and chairs out.

That is a rule about where a motorhome may stand overnight. It is not a permission to pitch a tent in open country, and the two get merged because both end up filed under "wild camping" by whoever is writing the summary.

It is also worth noting what the most-cited article for the claim actually contains. The 2024 piece headlined "Im Aargau und in Obwalden ist Wildcampen erlaubt" names no law, no ordinance and no article for either canton. We read it to check.3 We did not enumerate the full Aargau collection ourselves, so we are not claiming that no Aargau camping norm exists anywhere; we are saying the claim as published is uncited and describes parking.

The cantons where the answer is an absence

The more useful pattern is the opposite of a permission. In several cantons nothing prohibits you because no norm was ever written, and that absence, not a permission clause, is what decides most nights out there.

Appenzell Innerrhoden is the cleanest case: it repealed the penalty articles of its camping ordinance in 2005, so no cantonal camping fine exists there at all, and the lawful route at the Fälensee runs through the alp tenant's consent instead.4 Uri has no camping ban, which is what the Chaiserstuel and Spilauersee reports rest on. Glarus has no cantonal camping norm, which decides the Fessisee. Nidwalden has no on-the-spot camping fine anywhere.

Graubünden has no cantonal ban either, but it is the clearest warning against reading a canton as an answer: communes there prohibit camping municipality-wide on their own authority, and Silvaplana reaches CHF 30,000 through building law.5 Canton clean, commune closed.

Why the commune is the level that matters

Because that is where the prohibitions actually live. Bern has no cantonal camping ban, and yet the Bernese Oberland contains some of the strictest rules in the country, all communal: Lauterbrunnen up to CHF 5,000 municipality-wide since 1 January 2025, Grindelwald with no above-treeline exception, Kandersteg banning tents at Art. 7. Valais has no cantonal ban, and Zermatt still prices a tent at about CHF 200 at Art. 43.

So a canton-level answer is the wrong shape of answer. Knowing your canton has no camping law tells you only that nobody has closed the question from above. The commune can still have closed it, and roughly 2,000 of them each decide independently.

The one place a canton-level fact is decisive is the federal layer above it, which no canton and no commune can undo: inside a federal hunting-ban district, free camping is prohibited outright.6

Why a canton map would mislead you

Because a canton coloured green would mean only that the canton has not legislated, and that is the situation in most of Switzerland. It says nothing about the roughly 2,000 communes that can and do prohibit camping across their whole territory, private ground included, at any altitude. The two strictest sets of rules we have found sit in Bern and Valais, both cantons with no cantonal camping ban at all.

Which cantons allow wild camping in Switzerland?
The honest answer is that most cantons have not legislated on it, which is not the same as allowing it, because the commune can still prohibit it. Obwalden is the one canton with an explicit written permission for a single overnight stay, at Art. 8 of its Gesetz über das Campieren, conditional on no public or private interests being impaired.
Is wild camping really allowed in Aargau?
Not in the sense usually meant. The rule people are describing is about vehicles: one night on a public parking area with no explicit prohibition, gone in the morning, no camping behaviour. That is not a permission to pitch a tent in open country, and the widely shared article making the claim names no law for it.
What does Obwalden's law actually say?
Art. 6 of GDB 971.4 says pitching tents, caravans and motorhomes for camping outside authorised campsites is not permitted. Art. 8 then permits a single overnight stay without a permit, provided no public or private interests are impaired, at your own risk. Art. 7 para. 3 additionally allows temporary free camping on the plot of a residential house with the owner's consent.
My canton has no camping law. Does that mean I can sleep anywhere?
No. It means nobody closed the question from above. Your commune can still have a camping or police regulation covering its whole territory, and federal protected areas apply regardless. Bern and Valais both have no cantonal camping ban and contain some of the strictest communal rules in the country.
Is there any rule that applies across all of Switzerland?
Yes, at the federal level and it only ever restricts. Free camping inside a federal hunting-ban district is prohibited by federal ordinance with a fixed penalty of CHF 150, and no canton or commune can permit it there. The Swiss National Park is closed to it outright.
Where is wild camping banned in Switzerland?
Always inside federal hunting-ban districts and marked wildlife rest zones (CHF 150), in most nature reserves through their own decrees, and wherever a commune has banned it municipality-wide. The canton pages list the named norms for each canton.
What does wild camping cost in Switzerland if it is banned?
CHF 150 as the federal fixed penalty in hunting-ban districts and wildlife rest zones. Cantonal and communal fines range from CHF 50 into five-figure frames depending on the norm; each canton page carries its own numbers with the statute behind them.

Sources

  1. Kanton Obwalden, Gesetz über das Campieren (GDB 971.4) of 4 December 2014, in force since 1 March 2015, read in full from the official PDF. Art. 6: pitching tents, caravans and motorhomes for camping outside authorised campsites is not permitted. Art. 7 para. 3: with the owner's consent, temporary free camping is permitted on the plot of a residential house. Art. 8 "Einmaliges Übernachten": for a single overnight stay a tent, caravan or motorhome may be pitched without a permit outside authorised campsites if no public or private interests are impaired, at own risk. Art. 11: fine for camping without permission and for repeatedly breaching the ban. gdb.ow.ch. ↩
  2. Kanton Obwalden, Verordnung über das Kampieren (GDB 971.41) of 25 February 1977. Confirmed abrogated: the collection records it as in force from 1 May 1977 until 28 February 2015. This is the document most pages citing "Obwalden allows wild camping" still link to. gdb.ow.ch. ↩
  3. Prime News, April 2024, "Im Aargau und in Obwalden ist Wildcampen erlaubt". Read to check what it cites: the piece names no law, ordinance or article number for either canton, and gives no conditions or time limits for either. It is nonetheless the piece most often pointed at for the claim. primenews.ch. ↩
  4. Appenzell Innerrhoden repealed the penalty articles of its Campingverordnung in 2005, so no cantonal camping fine exists in the canton today, while the ordinance still permits camping with the owner's consent. Read in full for our Fälensee and Seealpsee reports. our Fälensee report. ↩
  5. Graubünden has no cantonal camping ban; the commune of Silvaplana reaches up to CHF 30,000 through cantonal building law rather than camping law. Read in full for our Silvaplanersee report. our Silvaplanersee report. ↩
  6. Verordnung über die eidgenössischen Jagdbanngebiete (VEJ, SR 922.31), Art. 5 Abs. 1 lit. e, with the fixed penalty of CHF 150 at Ordnungsbussenverordnung (OBV, SR 314.11) Anhang 2 Ziff. 12005. Federal, so no cantonal or communal permission reaches inside a district. fedlex.admin.ch. ↩