In Andalusia, Spain all private land seems to fenced off and often posted as well. You might ask somebody but the farm houses seem to be at the end of long driveways, behind locked gates, with lots of barking dogs. This leaves public park land which is illegal to camp on so you need to hide pretty well. People out walking tend to mind their own business and law enforcement doesn’t seem to stray far from their vehicles. In Portugal it is also illegal but I’ve observed a number of places where local people camp out near beaches pretty openly with no problem but then Portugal seems to a lot more relaxed than Spain.

In the Czech Republic there are so many places you can camp the challenge becomes finding one that is relatively dry and aesthetically pleasing with birch or oak trees on the edge of an open field with a view over a picturesque valley. Planted pine forests are dark and kind of depressing IMO.

All of this seems to imply that when you camp in this way, you’re doing something wrong or illegal. The fact of the matter is, in most states, you’re NOT.

There is a basic concept in the common law of most states that holds that undeveloped, unfenced, *un-posted* private land is available for anyone to hike, camp, walk, and even hunt and fish on. And you’re not doing anything wrong or illegal by doing so.

In order to use the land, it must be:
1.) “Undeveloped”, ie: no houses or structures, no cultivated fields, no roads, no radio towers, etc. No sign of any kind of human construction. Just forests and wild fields.
2.) It can’t be fenced in.
3.) It can’t be “Posted”. Ie: There can’t be any “No hunting” or “No trespassing” signs posted on the land.

If the land meets the above criteria in the states of: Alaska, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West
Virginia, or Wisconsin* then you are free to use the land to hike on, camp,
and even fish and hunt and you are NOT breaking the law.

You are also generally required not to remove or damage anything from
the land while you are there. And if the owner does show up and ask you
to leave, then you are trespassing from that moment on and you are
obliged to leave.

In the remaing 22 states, you are required to obtain the landowner’s
permission before you can hunt or fish, BUT the ability to hike or camp
on the land without permission is still retained in most of those states.
I do not yet have a definative list on which states, if any, have extended
trespass to include hiking and camping.

You can google on “posting statutes” for more info.

*Wisconsin recently changed it’s law so that a person who hunts or
fishes on unposted land without the owner’s permission is guilty of trespass,
but it doesn’t state whether hiking or camping is also included. I’m still looking
into that one. I *WAS* someone aghast at the statement that this law was
changed so that all those “ugly no tresspassing signs would no longer mar
the beauty of the Wisconsin roads” !! So, in a nation that’s increasingly more overweight and docile, it’s more important that people driving on the roads not have to look at a couple tiny little signs that it is to make land available for people to actually get out and see the planet? Sheesh!

Instead of inquiring at the local police department, the inabitants of which I find are become increasingly paranoic in modern times, do what I do – go to the local fire station. Fire hall personel are nearly as much ‘law enforcement’ as cops are. But their attitudes are far more helpful, and you can always ask them to call the local cops for you to verify the legality of camping on county or city properties. This makes a huge difference. And more likely than not you will receive an invitation to stay with one of the fire firefighters in their home. So be prepared for such an invite . . .