Wild camping at Lake Silvaplana: the shore is off, the boundary is on

The canton says yes, the commune says no

Wild camping at Lake Silvaplana starts from a comfortable position and ends at a single sentence. Take the layers in order, because that order is the whole point.

Graubünden itself does not stand in your way. We read the relevant cantonal law in full rather than assuming: the police act, the police ordinance, the nature and heritage act and its ordinance contain no camping or bivouac term and no camping offence of any kind. There is no cantonal fine for pitching a tent for a night. On that footing a single, considerate night above the treeline is the tolerated Swiss default, and the Swiss Alpine Club puts it plainly, that one overnight stay in the mountains above the treeline is as a rule unproblematic when done considerately.⁵⁶⁸

The federal layer does not stand in your way either. Checked at the shore, at Fuorcla Surlej and up the Corvatsch flank, there is no game reserve, no floodplain, no high or low moor and no amphibian site at any point. The one federal designation that covers the whole area is the landscape inventory, BLN object 1908, the Oberengadiner Seenlandschaft und Berninagruppe. That is worth reading carefully: the BLN binds the authorities under the federal nature and heritage act, and it carries no fine for a camper. It is a duty on the state, not a prohibition on you.¹⁰ The one federal camping penalty that exists, the CHF 150 fixed penalty for tenting inside a game reserve, needs a game reserve to bite, and there is none here.⁷

The two wildlife-rest zones near the lake do not change this. La Muotta, Marschins, Prugnieu on the west slope and Schinellas, Val Verda, Crap Alv on the north-east are both a full-access ban, but only in the closed season from 20 December to 30 April, and neither of them touches the Fuorcla Surlej corridor. Out of season they impose nothing, and the corridor sits outside them year round.⁹

"Das Campieren und Aufstellen von Wohnwagen, Wohnmobilen und dergleichen ist ausserhalb der Campingzone grundsätzlich untersagt."Baugesetz der Gemeinde Silvaplana, art. 65 para. 1: camping and the placing of caravans, campers and the like outside the camping zone is in principle prohibited.

The one thing that makes this restricted is communal, and it is decisive. The commune of Silvaplana forbids camping outside its designated camping zone across the whole municipality. The penalty sits at art. 149 of the same Baugesetz, a fine up to CHF 30'000. A second communal act, the Polizeigesetz of 2020, repeats the ban at art. 17: outside marked campsites, camping is prohibited. Its penalty at art. 40 is a fine of CHF 50 to CHF 5'000, and the commune's fixed-penalty list carries an on-the-spot charge of CHF 100 for unlawful camping on public ground, item 20.T.1, in the version revised on 22 December 2025.¹²³

The word that keeps this out of the forbidden column is grundsätzlich. Art. 65 says camping outside the zone is in principle prohibited, and the Gemeindevorstand, the commune's executive, can permit exceptions. That is a real door, not a technicality, and it is the reason the verdict here is restricted rather than a flat no. It also means the honest route is to ask the commune, not to assume.¹

The southern end of the lake belongs to a different commune, and it is no softer. The stretch towards Isola sits in Sils im Engadin, whose Baugesetz forbids camping across the whole municipal territory at art. 109 and whose police act repeats it at art. 11, with fines up to CHF 10'000. It is not the commune of the pin, but if you are working the south shore, that is the rule you are under.⁴

Where you actually can, and why the shore itself is not it

The counter-intuitive part is that the ban reaches the high alpine too. Because the Silvaplana rule is municipality-wide, it covers the ground toward Fuorcla Surlej and up the Corvatsch flank, even though that ground is clear of every federal zone. Above the treeline here is not a free wild-camp, and the reason is the commune rule, not federal law. That is the one thing most people get wrong about this lake: they clear the federal layers, see open alpine terrain, and conclude they are fine, when the communal ban is still running.¹

So here is where you can lawfully spend a night, in plain order.

One, the official campsite. Camping Silvaplana on the lake at Surlej is the only affirmatively lawful pitch, and it is a real answer for someone who simply wants to sleep by this water. It sits inside the camping zone that art. 65 carves out, so it is the one place the rule does not touch.¹¹

Two, a commune permit. Because art. 65 says camping is only in principle prohibited, the Gemeindevorstand can allow an exception. If you have a genuine reason to camp outside the zone, ask the Gemeinde Silvaplana. This is a public-law permission, so it is the executive you need, and no one else can grant it in their place.¹

Three, cross the boundary. A genuine wild bivouac just outside Silvaplana's territory, onto neighbouring ground that has no such blanket ban, above the treeline, outside the winter wildlife-rest zones, following the Graubünden and SAC one-night tolerance, is the wild-camping answer. That is a real option in this canton precisely because Graubünden itself does not prohibit it; you are only stepping out from under one commune's rule.⁵⁸

One thing that does not work here, and it matters. This is not an Appenzell-style consent route. The lake and shore are public, held by the commune, and the bar is a public-law communal ban rather than a question of who owns the ground. A landowner's yes does not cure it. Where the answer in some cantons is a phone call to a farmer, here the answer is a commune permit or the neighbouring territory.¹

The regional guidance says the same thing in fewer words. Graubünden's own tourism material notes that wild camping rules are set locally, that depending on the commune there are special regional restrictions, and that you should check the rule for the place you are heading. For this lake, that rule is the Silvaplana ban, and the regional page is pointing you at exactly the check this article has done.¹²

A famous lake, a developed shore, and real alpine ground above it

The setting first, because it decides half the question before the law does. Lake Silvaplana is a large Upper Engadin lake at 1'790.6 metres, ringed by the villages of Silvaplana and Surlej, by roads on both long sides, and by an official campground. It is one of the best-known windsurf and kite lakes in the Alps, which is precisely why the valley floor draws the kind of season-long tent and van tourism a communal camping ban is written against.¹¹

The pinned lakeshore fails the common-sense test on its own, before you even reach the statute. It is developed valley floor at 1'790 metres, in sight of villages, roads and the campground. Nobody looking honestly at that shore would call it a wild-camping spot: it is the front lawn of a resort lake, not a quiet corner of the mountains. The law and common sense point the same way here.

The lawful-feeling high ground is genuine, and it is still inside the commune. Fuorcla Surlej sits at around 2'755 metres, with the Corvatsch flank rising beside it, and this is real alpine terrain, above the treeline, the sort of place where a considerate single night is the Swiss default. Every federal layer comes back clear here. The catch is only the one already named: this ground is still within the commune of Silvaplana, so the communal ban runs all the way up. It is the clearest illustration of why the boundary, not the treeline, is the line that matters on this lake.¹

The practical read. If your goal is to sleep by this water, the campsite is the clean answer and it is right there on the lake. If your goal is a wild night with a view of the Bernina, the honest move is to gain height and cross out of Silvaplana's territory onto ground that carries no blanket ban, and to keep to the one-night, above-the-treeline, leave-no-trace standard that keeps the Graubünden tolerance alive. The shore itself is simply not the place, and that is true whether you read the map or the law.

Where you can legally sleep

• Camping Silvaplana, on the lake at Surlej, inside the camping zone that art. 65 carves out. The only affirmatively lawful pitch on the water, and the direct answer for anyone who wants to sleep by this lake. See campingsilvaplana.ch.
• A Gemeindevorstand exception, from the commune of Silvaplana. Art. 65 forbids camping outside the zone only in principle, and the executive can permit exceptions, so a genuine case can ask the Gemeinde Silvaplana.
• A wild bivouac just across the commune boundary, onto neighbouring ground with no such blanket ban, above the treeline, outside the winter wildlife-rest zones, following the Graubünden and SAC one-night tolerance.
• A mountain inn or a manned hut in the Corvatsch and Bernina area, which is always the simplest lawful bed and takes the whole question off the table.
• Not the developed lakeshore, and not the high ground toward Fuorcla Surlej without a permit, because the communal ban runs municipality-wide and reaches both.

General rules for wild camping

This applies wherever you are genuinely allowed to sleep outside, which around Lake Silvaplana means the campsite, a commune permit, or ground beyond the municipal boundary. It is not legal text, it is decency and common sense, and on a busy resort lake it is the reason the tolerance in the wider canton survives at all.

• No fire. An open fire has no place in the mountains. A gas stove is enough.
• Pitch late, strike early. Set up towards evening, gone again early. A bivouac is one night, not a base camp.
• Leave no rubbish. Everything you carry up you carry down, organic scraps and toilet paper included.
• At least 50 metres from any water for the big business, so you do not foul what people and livestock drink.
• Stay small and quiet. A small group, no speaker, no drone, dogs on the lead, and the alp staff's word goes.

Disclaimer

This article reflects my research and assessment to the best of my knowledge, as of August 2026. It is based on the publicly accessible and official sources linked below. It does not replace legal advice and is not a binding statement of the current legal situation.

Communal enactments change, and fixed-penalty lists are revised, so material written about this lake before now may be out of date. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, obtain a commune permit if you intend to camp outside the campground, and follow instructions on site. A genuine emergency bivouac in distress is a separate question from a planned camp. Anyone who spends the night outside bears responsibility for their own conduct and any consequences themselves. Hikebeast, Leon Helg and Saftladen GmbH accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of this text, and call on no one to break applicable law.

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Leon Helg

Swiss filmmaker and software developer. Spends his free time in the Swiss Alps and maps his favourite spots for Hikebeast. Posts as @leon.helg on Instagram and TikTok.

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