Every legality report we have published: 34 Swiss spots, each with the verdict, the fine situation, and the legal route if one exists.
Brienzergrat, Oberried am Brienzersee
A tent is prohibited. Oberried am Brienzersee has its own Campingreglement, and Art. 3 bans camping outside licensed campsites with a fine up to CHF 5'000. Its exception looks like Lauterbrunnen's but is far narrower: it only covers a tent inside the building zone, on a built-on plot attached to an inhabited house with usable sanitary facilities, so a pass at 1'919 m can never satisfy it. The only route is a Gemeinderat permit on application.
Read the report → IllegalGrindelwald First, Bernese Oberland
Forbidden and finable. Grindelwald bans tents municipality-wide (Camping-Reglement Art. 9, fine up to CHF 1'000), with no above-treeline exception, so the lake, First and the Faulhorn are all covered. The slopes above the lake are inside the federal hunting-ban district Schwarzhorn, where fines reach CHF 20'000. Sleep at the Berghotel Faulhorn or the valley campsites instead.
Read the report → ToleratedSaxeten, Bernese Oberland
Tolerated on a narrow salient: the 2'095 m summit and its west flank lie in Saxeten, which has no camping rule at all, above the treeline and outside every protected zone. The invisible lines are the whole law: 100 to 200 m north, east and south of the cross you are already in Wilderswil, where camping outside campsites is banned since 21 July 2025, and the Lobhornhütte side is Lauterbrunnen ban territory. Pitch at or west of the crest, ideally after a call to the Bergschaft Bällen.
Read the report → It dependsAbove the Vierwaldstättersee, Oberdorf
No statute prohibits a summer night here, and that is proven by enumeration: all 400 Nidwalden acts searched with the word Biwak in none, 25 Oberdorf enactments clean, and the Wildruhezone ordinance contains no camping rule at all and runs only 15 December to 30 April. Nobody in the canton can issue an on-the-spot camping fine anywhere, because the fixed-penalty act is a closed list that omits nature protection. But the canton's own 2021 information sheet answers the general question with no and requires the landowner's consent, and the summit is the top edge of an alp that runs to exactly 1'806 m.
Read the report → It dependsThree lakes, Glarus Süd, Mels and Quarten
There are three lakes called Chammseeli and the answers are opposite, so establish which one you mean first. Glarus Süd, 2'012 m by the Leglerhütte, sits in the integral part of federal game reserve Kärpf: camping prohibited, CHF 150 on the spot, and the nearest boundary is 1'746 m away and 700 m below, so there is no walking out of it. Mels, 2'312 m, has nothing against it at all in any season. Quarten, 2'155 m and actually a pair of lakes, is closed to entry from 15 December to the end of the ski season and open the rest of the year.
Read the report → IllegalInnertkirchen, Bernese Oberland
Forbidden at the lake. The Engstlensee and its shores sit inside the cantonal nature reserve Engstlensee-Jungibäche-Achtelsass (decree of 2012), which bans tents and bivouac year-round, fine up to CHF 50'000, and wardens patrol and fine even for campfires. The legal route is to sleep at Hotel Engstlenalp on the lake, or to cross the Jochpass north into Obwalden, where a single night's tent above the treeline is tolerated.
Read the report → It dependsAlpstein, Appenzell Innerrhoden
Legal with the alp tenant's consent, and the consent is a standing offer: ask at the Fälenalp, pay the small per-night fee, around CHF 12, or 15 with prior notice, and stay in the marked zone. The Appenzell camping ordinance permits consented camping and its penalty articles were repealed in 2005, so there is no fine. The lake lies outside the federal hunting-ban district Säntis; higher up the federal ban applies.
Read the report → LegalAbove Gadmen, Innertkirchen
Every layer comes back clear, so one night is lawful. No federal norm reaches the lake, Bern has no camping ordinance and its only rule naming Biwakieren covers 28 areas that do not include this valley, and Innertkirchen has neither a police regulation nor a camping regulation. The building regulation the commune will not put online is published by the canton in the OEREB cadastre: no camping provision, and the lake is in the farming and alpine zone, not the campsite zone.
Read the report → IllegalRossberg, Arth
The summit sits inside a communal nature protection zone listed as object T2 Gnipen, a mountain meadow with major orchid populations, where Art. 6 Abs. 2 lit. f of the Arth Schutzverordnung prohibits camping and tenting. Ceiling CHF 10'000 via Art. 21 and no on-the-spot tariff. From 1 March to 15 November Art. 9 Abs. 3 also confines you to the marked path, which runs 0.4 m from the summit, so pitching anything breaches it. Twenty to forty metres south-east every prohibition stops, but nobody could find that line on the ground.
Read the report → IllegalFaulhorn and Schwarzhorn, Bernese Oberland
There are two lakes called Hagelseewli in the Bernese Oberland and both lie inside the federal hunting-ban district Schwarzhorn, where free tenting and camping are banned by federal ordinance. On the Brienz lake the communal police regulation bans it a second time, and its definition of camping names bivouacking outright. Meiringen bans camping in the Reichenbachtal through a separate parking reglement, worded so it does not reach a tentless bivouac. Leaving the reserve southwards crosses into Grindelwald after 197 metres, which bans tents outside licensed sites.
Read the report → It dependsAbove the Flüelapass, Klosters
A tent is prohibited across the whole basin by Klosters Baugesetz Art. 100, but the prohibition has no fine behind it: the building law carries no penalty article at all, and cantonal KRG Art. 95 punishes only owners and people running a building project. The commune can order your tent down and cannot fine you for pitching it. None of the three communes here writes the word Biwakieren, so a tentless night is a further step removed.
Read the report → LegalAbove Schwarzsee, Plaffeien
Lawful for one night at 2'184 m: no federal norm at the summit, Fribourg has no cantonal camping ban, and Plaffeien publishes neither a police nor a camping regulation. The summit sits in the Gantrisch Regional Nature Park, which is a label and a charter rather than a protection ordinance, so its camping code is a request with no penalty. That request is worth honouring: the park is actively working to reduce wildcamping and has opened paid farm pitches instead.
Read the report → It dependsKlöntal, Gemeinde Glarus
No norm prohibits it, and that is verified rather than assumed: all 487 cantonal acts and all 119 communal Erlasse contain no camping provision, the cantonal fines catalogue has no camping offence at all, and the Amtsblatt holds no court prohibition for this lake. It still depends on the owner. Both shore strips belong to Gemeinde Glarus, forest access is a right to walk and not to sleep, and the commune has published that camping belongs on Güntlenau and Vorauen. Fire is genuinely banned, up to CHF 20'000.
Read the report → LegalFinhaut, Valais
A one-night bivouac on the high shoulder above the western shore (2'263 m, Finhaut ground) is legal: no norm in force bans it. Valais has no cantonal wild-camping ban and Finhaut's police rules contain no camping article. Two hard lines: the Salvan border runs about 150 m north of the pitch, and over there camping is banned with fines up to CHF 10'000; sleeping at the dam parkings below is banned and patrolled since 2024, tents included.
Read the report → LegalCampolungo group above the Leventina, Quinto
Expressly allowed by the cantonal statute itself. Ticino's Legge sui campeggi restricts camping to authorised areas in Art. 2 para. 1, then exempts in para. 2 "l'attendamento a scopo di bivacco in montagna", pitching for the purpose of a mountain bivouac. At 2'260 m that is exactly the case described. The commune of Quinto publishes 13 regolamenti and 24 ordinanze and none regulates camping.
Read the report → IllegalLauterbrunnen Valley, Bernese Oberland
Banned outside campsites across the whole municipality since 1 January 2025 (Camping-Reglement, tents and vans alike, fine up to CHF 5'000), but the reglement itself exempts occasional camping on private land for private purposes: a farmer's personal yes puts you inside the law's own carve-out. In the back-valley nature reserve the 1960 decree bans camping and fires, except bivouacs during genuine high tours.
Read the report → IllegalVouvry, Chablais valaisan
Forbidden by the commune, not by the canton. Valais has no cantonal wild-camping ban, but the police regulation shared by Vouvry, St-Gingolph, Port-Valais and Vionnaz forbids camping outside places expressly designated by the authority, fine up to CHF 5'000, and even negligence is punishable. The commune states in writing that the ban includes bivouac and the surrounding mountains, and the one authorised camping area at the lake was closed in 2016. Sleep at the Auberge-Refuge Le Grammont in Taney instead.
Read the report → IllegalGlarus Süd, Glarus
A court order obtained by the power company together with the commune covers the two land parcels that make up the entire basin, so the lake, both dams, the Muttsee and every shore bench sit inside it, not just the Muttenchopf viewpoint. The fine is CHF 2'000, not the CHF 20'000 that circulates, and the order names bivouacking and drones as well as camping. Asking permission is not a route here, because the two landowners are the ones who went to court. Above the waterline there is essentially no campable ground anyway.
Read the report → LegalSpitzmeilen group above Flumserberg, Flums
Lawful for one night, checked across all three layers. No federal norm reaches the act, St. Gallen has no cantonal ban, and the camping ban in Flums's new 2026 police reglement is scoped by its Art. 19 to communal parcels, roads and squares. The lake sits on Ortsgemeinde Flums-Grossberg alp parcel 3162. Two lines to respect: stay north of the Spitzmeilen crest, and the nature reserves 3.7 km north-east where Lagern is banned outright.
Read the report → Not allowedSchwende-Rüte, Appenzell Innerrhoden
Appenzell Innerrhoden fines nobody for sleeping out: the camping ordinance works through the landowner's consent and its penalty articles were repealed in 2005, which the canton's own fixed-penalty schedule confirms with not one camping entry. The problem here is the place, not the law. Meglisalp is a working common alp with a resident dairy, a chapel and an inn that sleeps 125, and the point sits on a 21 degree slope 92 m from an alp building, 28 m off the trail and below the treeline. The alp's own house rules are more permissive than we are. Walk 604 m north-west and you cross into the federal game reserve, where consent cannot help.
Read the report → It dependsSulsalp above Isenfluh, Lauterbrunnen
The lake is in Lauterbrunnen, which bans camping outside campsites across the whole municipality since 1 January 2025, tents and vans alike. But Art. 3 of that reglement exempts occasional camping on private land for private purposes, so the landowner's yes puts you inside the text's own carve-out. Unlike the back valley, no reserve is stacked on top: the federal layers come back empty at the lake.
Read the report → IllegalKandersteg, Bernese Oberland
Tents are banned across the whole municipality of Kandersteg (communal police regulation Art. 7, in force since 2021, fine up to CHF 5'000, in practice CHF 200 plus costs). Right at the lake a judicial prohibition also bans the tentless bivouac (up to CHF 2'000). The legal way: the official campsite in Kandersteg or a hut.
Read the report → IllegalZermatt, Valais
Not allowed. Zermatt's police regulation (Art. 43) bans camping on public ground across the municipality, the mountain lakes included. The standard fine is CHF 200 per tent, and police operation costs can be added, with night checks sometimes flown in by helicopter. The lake is also a nature reserve. Legal alternatives: a hotel at the Gornergrat, an SAC hut, or the sunrise train.
Read the report → It dependsRigi, Arth
Nothing prohibits camping at the summit point itself: Arth bans it only inside its nature protection zones and the summit is in none of them, and neither Schwyz nor Lucerne has a general camping ban. But the cantonal plant-protection reserve Rigigebiet, where camping is expressly forbidden, starts about five metres north, and the land belongs to the Unterallmeind-Korporation Arth whose consent Rigi Bahnen itself tells you to obtain. The only level ground up there carries a hotel, a transmitter tower and a rack-railway terminus.
Read the report → It dependsAlpstein, Appenzell Innerrhoden
No cantonal wild-camping ban is in force in Appenzell Innerrhoden as of 2026, and the Lücke itself lies outside the federal hunting-ban district Säntis. The rangers talk, they cannot fine. A new cantonal law is being drafted (vote likely 2028), so check the current state before you go.
Read the report → It dependsAlpstein, Schwende-Rüte
Appenzell Innerrhoden has no general camping fine, its penalty articles were repealed in 2005, and the route is the landowner's consent under Art. 4 of the Campingverordnung. But Art. 6 Abs. 3 applies the ordinance's zone restrictions to that consent route as well, so a yes from the farmer is not the end of it here. And a tent physically fits: the flattest ground for 300 m in any direction is the summit platform, which is also the viewpoint, 75 m from a guesthouse sleeping 85. The ground that works is the saddle 1'260 m south-west.
Read the report → LegalSeewis im Prättigau, Graubünden
The national border runs straight across the summit and the mapped high point falls about 1.3 metres on the Austrian side, so walk roughly ten metres down the south flank before you rely on any of this. On Swiss ground nothing prohibits a single night: no federal game reserve within 35 kilometres, no Graubünden camping rule for the public at all, and Seewis has never had a police act. The three communal rules that do exist stop short: camping is banned in the forest on the walk-in, the wildlife rest zones are winter only and kilometres away, and the Flurverbot covers hay meadows rather than rock. Nobody has to be asked.
Read the report → ToleratedWilderswil, Bernese Oberland
A one-night tent high on the ridge breaks no norm in force: the crest and Sägistal side belong to Gündlischwand, whose camping ban covers public ground only, and Gsteigwiler has no camping rule at all. The flanks flip: Bönigen bans commune-wide, Wilderswil's new reglement (in force since 21 July 2025) bans the valley and trailheads, and the fenced Alpine Garden closes at night. The ground is private alp pasture, so ask consent where you can.
Read the report → It dependsAlpstein, Appenzell Innerrhoden
No public right to camp and officially discouraged, but no camping fine: Appenzell Innerrhoden repealed the penalty articles in 2005. The legal route is the owner's consent under the Appenzell camping ordinance, so ask the responsible Senn. Higher up, inside the federal hunting-ban district Säntis, the federal ban applies and consent does not help.
Read the report → It dependsPeiltal, Vals
It depends what you sleep under. Art. 7 of the Vals police ordinance bans all camping across the whole commune, on public and private ground alike, without a permission from the Gemeinderat. The same article then exempts the bivouac in the course of individual mountain tours by name. So a pitched tent needs a permission and a bivvy bag needs nothing at all. No federal or cantonal norm reaches the lake. Note the map pin sits on the water, 68 metres from shore; the usable ground is the north to north-east bench.
Read the report → It dependsSigriswilergrat, above the Thunersee
It depends on the date. From 1 September to 30 November the summit sits inside the legally binding wildlife rest zone Justistal zone 1a: category F bans free camping and category D bans leaving the marked paths, CHF 100 on the spot for each, and Bernese gamekeepers may impose and collect the fine themselves. From 1 December to 31 August nothing prohibits a night here at all, not federal, not cantonal, not communal. The zone boundary runs 10.6 metres from the summit, but a digitised perimeter is not accurate to ten metres.
Read the report → IllegalBrienzergrat, Oberried am Brienzersee
Forbidden in every direction. The summit pin sits in a gap a few metres wide between two federal game reserves: Nr. 5 Tannhorn with integral protection 3.0 m to the north-east, Nr. 1 Augstmatthorn 8.4 m to the north-west. VEJ Art. 5 para. 1 lit. e bans free tenting and camping in both and carries no zone qualifier, so partial protection changes nothing, fines up to CHF 20'000. The only reserve-free ground, east through south-west, is Brienz, whose police reglement defines camping to include bivouacking. The gap itself is Oberried, which bans camping outside licensed sites too.
Read the report → It dependsTrift, Innertkirchen
The law says yes and the ground says no. No federal, cantonal or communal norm prohibits a one-night bivouac in the Trift, and the Gadmen building regulation that was unreadable a year ago has since been merged, cantonally approved on 4 June 2026 and contains no camping provision at all. But the bridge is a walkway about 0.8 metres wide hanging some 85 metres above the lake, so the pin is not a pitch. The usable ground is the rock terraces above the Triftsee, about ten minutes further on.
Read the report → IllegalSchwarzenberg LU and Wolfenschiessen NW
Switzerland has eleven Widderfelds and only two of them are summits, so establish which one you mean. A tent is banned on both. The Pilatus one above the Eigenthal sits in a landscape protection zone where the communal zoning reglement allows tents only on licensed sites, and because that is public zoning law no landowner can give you permission. Widderfeld Stock above Wolfenschiessen sits one metre inside the federal game reserve Hutstock, where free camping is banned year-round for a fixed CHF 150. Both times the lawful ground is a short walk into Obwalden, whose camping act allows a single night's tent without a permit.
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