How bureaucrats killed beach camping
In 2004 I camped out for the night on Roses Beach, where I was ravaged by midges for six hours as my then-boyfriend snored beneath inky Catalonian skies.
Iona Sharkey, a 48-year-old mum of three in Somerset, enjoyed a more successful beach camping trip around Greece in her late teens. “It was the best holiday I ever had,” she recalls.
For three weeks the penniless Sharkey travelled around the Greek islands with a group of friends, the three disembarking ferries at nightfall to seek out secluded beach spots. “We saw wonderful cosmic displays, got drunk on ouzo, night swam and dodged police, as well as the occasional flasher,” she recalls.
What a difference a few decades makes. In 2024, crackdowns are mounting against beach camping, with travellers being warned they can face hefty fines for camping out on the coast in popular holiday destinations across mainland Europe and the UK.
Rules introduced in Benidorm in March 2024 ban anyone from sleeping on the beach between the hours of midnight and 7am, with fines from €750-€1,200 (£645-£1,027) for any infractions.
Wild camping is also now illegal along the protected areas of the Portuguese coastline, which includes beaches, nature reserves and parks; wild campers here risk being slapped with fines of up to £500.
Popular coastal towns across Croatia (including Dubrovnik and Split) go a step further, with bans introduced in 2023 against sleeping in any public spaces, even during the daytime, with fines of up to €300 (£256) handed out on the spot for anyone caught snoozing off rakija (the local firewater) on a bench along the seafront.
In Malta and Italy, meanwhile, visitors need to obtain hard-to-come-by permits from the authorities to sleep on the sands beneath a star-punched sky.
Nic Shacklock of bed design company Online-Bedrooms.co.uk, which has conducted research into camping regulations across Europe, and said shoestring travellers and romantics alike should beware of the rising tide of restrictions.
“It’s important to know the laws when it comes to spending time on the beach,” he says. “Tourists can be handed a hefty fine for illegally taking a nap, sleeping overnight or wild camping.”
Portia Jones, 39, is host of the Travel Goals podcast and lived in Australia from 2013 to 2014 where beach camping is a rite of passage for young Aussies and backpackers on the coastal tourist trail. “We would regularly sleep on the beach with a blanket and a box of cheap wine,” she recalls.
Jones says she was always a “considerate” beach sleeper, cleaning up after herself and refraining from playing loud music. “You want to go to sleep to the sound of the ocean, not Beyoncé, after all,” she laughs.
Yet even laidback Australia is now cracking down on beach camping, with Queensland recently banning campervans and backpackers from pitching up between 10pm and 4am, issuing fines of $309 (£162).
Partly these crackdowns are down to Australia’s growing housing crisis, as young “van lifers” and the older retired motorhomers compete for cheap legal pitching spots.
Wild camping was outlawed in England and Wales under the 1824 Vagrancy Act, with this civil regulation more likely to be enforced after the beach-littering and toileting scandals of the Covid years.
In 2021, Bournemouth introduced nighttime beach patrols and a £1,000 fine for anyone caught camping on its crescent sands. In Cornwall, the popularity of this holiday destination coupled with a history of irresponsible camping means that bylaws against overnight stays are often strictly enforced, though fines are less hefty (typically around £70).
Liberal bright spots for beach campers, meanwhile, include Scotland, where the Land Reform Act of 2003 firmly established rights of public access to most land.
This includes more than 6,000 miles of coastline, where tourists can wild camp on the condition they follow the principles of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
In Sweden, the right of public access (Allemansrätten) means visitors are allowed to camp in most natural areas in the country, including privately owned forests and land (and adjacent to beaches but not on the sands) and the similar Norwegian “right to roam” allows anyone to stay overnight in a tent anywhere in nature in Norway as long as it is over 150 metres from the nearest dwelling.
And even in punitive countries there are windows of permissiveness, such as the August 15 Ferragosto in Italy, a public holiday when Italians head to the beach to barbecue, set off fireworks and camp beneath the stars.
As much as Sharkey treasures the memories, she’s unlikely to revisit beach-sleeping in middle age, especially with Greek authorities handing out €3,000 fines (£2,553) to anyone caught unfurling their sleeping bags on those handsome Hellenic shores.
“At my age the lure of a mattress is very strong,” she laughs.
