Where you are allowed to sleep

Before anything else, the thing that actually decides whether you are breaking a law: "bivouac" does not mean the same thing in every country on this route. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland a bivouac means sleeping outside without a tent — put a tent up and it is camping, which is regulated far more strictly. In France it means the opposite: sleeping outdoors with a small tent, away from any official site. And in Italy "un bivacco" is not an activity at all — it is a small unstaffed hut. That distinction is most of the answer. For the second half of this route I had no tent, and in three of these countries that alone changes what the rules say about you. An emergency bivouac is permitted everywhere in the Alps. If injury, weather or darkness has left you unable to descend safely, sleeping out is allowed in every country here. That is not the same as planning to sleep out and calling it an emergency afterwards. Monaco. No camping and no planned bivouac anywhere in the principality. It is where the route starts and it is not somewhere you sleep. France. The most permissive country on the route. Wild camping and bivouac are broadly permitted, with exceptions — the coast, protected natural sites, and the perimeter of historic monuments. The national parks then set their own rules on top, and they differ: Mercantour — only more than an hour's walk from the park boundary or the nearest road. A tent may be up between 7pm and 9am. Écrins — at least an hour's walk from road access and from the core area boundary. A small tent between 7pm and 9am, for one night, or for as long as bad weather lasts. Vanoise — only right beside certain staffed refuges, tent up between 7pm and 8am, and in summer you have to reserve the spot and pay about €5 a person. Fire is forbidden in all French national parks, without exception. Italy. Sleeping out from dusk to dawn is generally tolerated unless something says otherwise, but a lot of the authority sits with the individual municipality. In national and nature parks it is generally not permitted. Trentino-South Tyrol — permitted with or without a tent, up to 24 hours, wherever there is no explicit ban. Piedmont — up to 48 hours in areas with no official campsite. Aosta Valley — permitted above 2,500 m from sunset to sunrise; with a tent it is banned in protected areas and near huts. Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, which is where this route ends — with a tent, only in specially designated areas. Otherwise prohibited. Switzerland. There is no single national law. As a general rule anyone may access woodlands and meadows, and outside protected areas an overnight stay is usually tolerated — but cantons and municipalities can and do regulate on top of that, and Ticino, Valais and Graubünden are stricter than most. It is banned in the Swiss National Park, in federal game reserves, in many nature reserves and in wildlife rest zones during the protection period. The Swiss Alpine Club's guidance is the one worth remembering: the good places are above the forest line, on alpine meadows or rocky ground. Avoid the upper forest line itself — it is where grouse live and game graze — and avoid wetlands. Near a pasture or a hut, ask the farmer or the hut team. Liechtenstein. No clear rule either way. Camping is explicitly forbidden in protected areas and in forest. Elsewhere on public land it is a grey area that is often tolerated. Check with the municipality. Germany. Restrictive, and it varies by state. Bivouacking without a tent sits in a legal grey area and is sometimes tolerated; putting a tent up is a different matter. In protected areas — nature reserves, national parks, biosphere reserves, Natura 2000 — camping and planned bivouac are not permitted and can be more than a fine. Austria. The strictest framing of the lot, and the country this route spends the most time in. A planned overnight stay, with or without a tent, is only permitted with the landowner's permission. On public land it is not permitted unless the municipality or the state has decided otherwise. In protected areas it is not permitted at all. The states differ in what they add on top. Upper Austria and Styria allow it on uncultivated alpine terrain above the tree line and outside pasture. Salzburg does not generally prohibit it high in the mountains. Vorarlberg generally permits it. Tyrol and Carinthia add no special provision for private visitors — which leaves the restrictive general rule standing, and Carinthia's nature conservation law carries fines that run into the thousands of euros. Slovenia. No camping and no planned bivouac outside designated areas. Municipalities set their own conditions. Inside Triglav National Park it is not permitted and is fined, and rangers do patrol. What Slovenia has instead is a real network of mountain huts and unstaffed bivouac shelters, and on this route that is the answer rather than a workaround. What I actually did. Thirty-eight nights outside with a sleeping bag and a mat, no tent. I slept low rather than high, looked for shelter from the wind, and checked the forecast before committing to a night out — and on a night that was going to rain I aimed for a hut instead. I slept beside a railway station under a bridge, on a bench, in an abandoned hut, in a treehouse, and in a cable car station that only runs in winter. I am not going to pretend all of that was inside the letter of the law. Some of it was in a grey area and some of it was in a country whose answer is "only with the owner's permission". If you do this, the honest version is: know which country you are in, know whether you have a tent up, stay out of the protected areas, arrive at dusk and leave at dawn, and leave nothing. Sources, and how current this is. The country and regional rules above are from CIPRA International's brochure Responsible bivouacking along the Via Alpina, published May 2025, which cites the underlying national and regional law; from the Mercantour, Écrins and Vanoise national park authorities; from the Swiss Alpine Club's guidance on camping and bivouacking in the Swiss mountains; and from the Austrian Alpine Club. Checked September 2026. This is what I found, not legal advice. These rules change, they differ between neighbouring valleys, and a national park can tighten its own overnight regulation between one season and the next. Check with the park authority or the municipality before you rely on any of it.