Free camping may refer to:
- Stealth camping or urban camping, where you park your nondescript and not-apparently-occupied vehicle in a place where most people won't notice your presence.
- Free public places to park where it's acceptable to live and sleep in your vehicle temporarily, but not establish a "camp". To a lesser extent, there is free parking in business lots in certain places.
- Actual free camping, where you may openly do things cook and eat outside, build a campfire, and other camping and recreation activities.
There are free formal campgrounds in some places, with facilities which may include restrooms, fire rings, picnic tables, or tent pads.
In many countries, there are certain public lands where you may camp for free, generally subject to limitations like occupancy time limits. This may be known as boondocking or dispersed camping.
In the United States, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service manage most of the public lands where camping is allowed.
Resources
| Resource | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Dispersed Camping | Private Facebook group, 90k members. "A community of boondockers for boondockers!" | |
| Free Camping, Boondocking on Public Lands | Public Facebook group with 11k members as of August 2024. "A group to discuss travel, sightseeing, camping and equipment for off-grid boondocking on public lands." | |
| Boondocking | Subreddit for boondocking | |
| Search forums and groups | Search van life discussion groups for "free camping" | |
| Search related sites | Search van life sites for "free camping" | |
| Search NomadLife.wiki | Search other pages on this wiki for "free camping" |