11

Last week I was cycling through my home country (Netherlands), mostly camping on so called "nature camping sites" (natuurkampeerterreinen in Dutch). These are quite minimalistic camping sites, mostly located in nature/forests, with only very minimalistic facilities like a few showers/toilets, but with spacious plots which provide some quietness/privacy. As wild camping is forbidden in the Netherlands, this feels like the closest (legal) alternative to camping out in nature**

There is a foundation which manages an overview of these sites, which is convenient for planning trips. I have been searching for similar foundations/organisations/overviews for other western European countries (Germany, Belgium, France, ...), but didn't manage to find any.

Does anyone know if these exists for other (western) European countries?

I know that some European countries (like Sweden, Norway, Ireland, ...) allow wild camping, and although that potentially sounds nice for the future, I am for now mostly interested in camping sites which provide at least a toilet/shower/water.

** There used to be something called "paal kamperen" in the Netherlands, it was stopped during Covid, but still exist in Belgium.

single tent in forest source, Dutch only

small campsite between trees source, Dutch only

Improve this question
0

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

I made a community wiki answer out of this, so anyone can add their findings. My original question was about nature camping sites which do provide some minimal facilities like toilets/showers/water, but perhaps it is useful to broaden this a bit to include locations where you are (legally) allowed to camp, for those interested in pseudo wild camping.

The definition of a nature camping is rather vague, but for me it includes camp sites where you can quietly experience nature, without too much luxury like swimming pools, sauna's, stores, wild parties, ... Perhaps this has to be refined later...

To prevent having lists with hundreds of camp sites per country, it is probably best to limit this to websites/resources which provide an overview of multiple camp sites, like the ones which are currently listed for Denmark and the Netherlands.

https://opencampingmap.org seems to be the most useful source of info. It contains all the bivouac areas in Belgium, many similar sites across Germany (Eifel, Black Forest, Sauerland), Czechia, and many other countries.

After deselecting everything but "backcountry campsite" in the top-left menu, only bivouac areas are shown, which typically are legal wild-camping spots.

Example from the Ardennes / Eifel area at the border between Belgium and Germany. More information (coordinates, websites, ...) is shown after clicking on one of the markers.

enter image description here

NOTE: [XX] indicates the language(s) of the website.

Belgium

  • https://www.bivakzone.be [NL] : bivouac areas where you can camp for free within a 10 meter radius around the pole indicating the site. No showers/toilets.

Denmark:

  • https://udinaturen.dk [DK] : overview of free tenting areas (Frit teltningsområde), with additionally some small and large camp sites (Lille Lejrplads / Stor Lejrplads, I guess not all qualify as a nature campsite). Overview managed by the Danish Nature Agency.

France:

Netherlands

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.