Wild camping in Bulgaria: where it is legal, the rules and the fines

Bulgaria has no single law that bans wild camping everywhere, and none that allows it everywhere. Whether you may pitch a tent or sleep in a camper van depends on where you are. On the Black Sea coast, a special law allows it only at places designated by a mayor's order and sets fines for tents and campers elsewhere in the coastal zones. In national and nature parks, the Protected Areas Act bans bivouacking outside designated places. In and near forests, the Forest Act controls fire rather than tents. Elsewhere inland, the national laws checked for this guide contain no general ban, but the land always belongs to someone.

At a glance#

Fines are for an individual; repeat offences cost more. The laws still state fines in leva; since 1 January 2026 those amounts count as euro at the fixed rate of 1.95583 leva per euro, rounded to the cent (see fines in euro).

Note: the Protected Areas Act does not attach a fine to each ban. The 500 to 5,000 lv range is the one the environment ministry and the park directorates state, and it matches the Act's general fine in Art. 81(1) (see parks).

The Black Sea coast: zones A and B#

The coast is where the rules are strictest and where most of the questions come from. The Black Sea Coast Spatial Development Act (ZUCHK) divides the coast into two zones:

• Zone A covers the beaches and a strip 100 m wide inland from the shore or beach outside settlements. For the three beaches classed for nature-friendly tourism, Irakli, Byala-Karadere and Koral, the strip is 500 m wide (Art. 10(1)).
• Zone B is the next 2 km inland, or 1.6 km beyond the 500 m strip at those three beaches, excluding the built-up areas of settlements (Art. 11(1)).

Where a tent or camper is allowed#

In its current wording, in force since July 2019, Art. 10a ZUCHK allows places for "the temporary placement of tents, campers or caravans" in zones A and B, outside beaches, sand dunes and categorised campsites. They can be set up on state, municipal or private land in forest areas, on farmland, or on undeveloped plots inside settlements. They are not campsites under the Tourism Act, and only non-commercial recreation furniture such as benches, tables, shelters and fountains may be placed in them (Art. 10a(1) and (2)).

The detailed rules are in Ordinance RD-02-21-1, in force since 1 October 2025:

• The landowner, or someone with the owner's notarised consent or a lease, applies to the mayor. A mayor's order allows the place for up to three years, and only for the period from 1 May to 30 September (Art. 5 to 7).
• The place needs transport access (Art. 2(1)). It cannot be in a reserve, natural landmark, maintained reserve or protected locality, on a beach or dune, or in a coastal flood strip or registered landslide area (Art. 3).
• Pitches are at least 3 m apart and 2 m from the vehicle lane, pitches take up no more than 70% of the plot, and there is one portable chemical toilet per 30 people (Art. 16, 17).
• The operator must post the rules and the price at the entrance, provide security and waste collection, and allow fires only at the places set aside for them where no other ban applies (Art. 18, 19).
• Campers must keep the place clean, light fires only with proper equipment at the marked places, and leave the place as they found it (Art. 20).

National and nature parks are not on the ordinance's list of excluded areas. Where zone A or B overlaps a protected area, though, the protection regime of that area still applies (Art. 10(10) and 11(3) ZUCHK), so park rules on bivouacking still count.

Beaches and dunes#

Art. 10(4) ZUCHK lists what may be placed on a beach: beach equipment such as umbrellas, sunbeds and mats, movable facilities for the beach's required services, sports and fast-food outlets, and some infrastructure. Tents are not named, and the ordinance excludes beaches from designated places. The law is explicit about two things:

• Dunes: placing tents and marquees, and driving, parking or stopping vehicles and trailers, is banned on white, grey and wooded dunes in zones A and B (Art. 17a(2)). A tent on a dune is fined 500 to 1,000 lv (Art. 30(2)).
• Vehicles on the beach: driving, parking or stopping on the beach is banned (Art. 17b(1)). Driving or stopping a vehicle to stay or park on the beach or on dunes is fined 1,000 to 3,000 lv (Art. 30(3)).

Mayors can add their own orders. According to BTA, in April 2026 the mayor of Byala banned tents, awnings, campers and caravans on Byala-Karadere beach.

The fines for tents and campers, and when they apply#

Art. 24v(1) ZUCHK fines anyone who "puts up a tent or marquee, or parks a camper or caravan, on someone else's unregulated plot of land in zone A or zone B outside the places designated under Art. 10a": 500 to 1,000 lv, and 1,500 to 3,000 lv for a repeat offence, unless a heavier penalty applies. "Unregulated" here means land that a detailed development plan has not laid out as a building plot. Setting up such places in breach of Art. 10a is fined 2,000 to 5,000 lv for an individual, or a property sanction of 10,000 to 20,000 lv for a company (Art. 24v(2)).

This article did not take effect with the rest of the 2019 amendment. Under § 15 of the amending act, it "enters into force within one year of the entry into force of the ordinance under Art. 10a(3)", and no calendar date is given. The ordinance took effect on 1 October 2025, so on the wording of § 15, Art. 24v is in force from 1 October 2026 at the latest. We found no announcement of the exact start date by the Ministry of Tourism or a municipality. In 2020 the Constitutional Court rejected the Ombudsman's challenge to Art. 10a, Art. 17a(2) and § 9 of the amending act, which introduced Art. 24v (Decision No. 6/2020).

Municipal officials appointed by the mayor draw up the penalty reports for Art. 24v. If the Minister of Tourism has been notified and the municipality has not opened proceedings, officials appointed by the minister or the regional governor can do so (Art. 32(4) and (5)).

Karadere, summer 2026. On 28 July 2026, BTA reported a joint inspection by the Varna regional administration, started by the regional governor and the mayor of Byala, on Byala-Karadere beach, where tents, caravans, campers and their equipment covered more than half the beach. Owners received notices to remove them voluntarily by 7 August. Officials said everything had to be at least 500 m from the beach, the width of zone A there, and cited fines of 500 to 3,000 lv in zone A (BTA).

The southern coast and Strandzha#

Part of the southern coast lies inside Strandzha Nature Park, which takes in parts of the land of Tsarevo, Ahtopol, Sinemorets and Rezovo. Within the park, the mouth of the Veleka, by Sinemorets and Ahtopol, and Silistar, between Sinemorets and Rezovo, are protected localities declared in 1992. Their declaration orders ban camping and lighting fires outside places marked with the written consent of the regional environment authority, and ban motor vehicles other than those used for forestry and farming (Executive Environment Agency register: Veleka mouth, Silistar, Strandzha Nature Park). No designated place under Art. 10a can be set up in a protected locality (Art. 10a(4) ZUCHK), and the nature park ban on bivouacking outside designated places applies across the park. Around Sinemorets, a categorised campsite is the straightforward choice. For the beaches themselves, see the guide to wild beaches on the Black Sea coast.

National parks, nature parks and reserves#

The Protected Areas Act bans "bivouacking and lighting fires outside the designated places" in national parks (Art. 21(13)) and in nature parks (Art. 31(6)). In national parks, those places are set by the park's management plan (Art. 22). In reserves, every activity is banned except protection, scientific visits, walking on marked paths, scientific collection and fire-fighting (Art. 17(1)), so there is no camping at all.

The Ministry of Environment and Water sums up the rule for Rila, Pirin and Central Balkan: camping is banned except at specially marked places near mountain huts, and open fires are strictly banned. It puts the fines at 500 to 5,000 lv for an individual and up to 10,000 lv for a legal entity, without naming an article; the Rila and Central Balkan directorates give the same range. That range matches Art. 81(1) of the Act, the general fine for an individual who carries out an activity in a protected area in breach of the regime set by the Act, its declaration order or approved plans. Reading Art. 81(1) as the fine for the bivouac and fire bans is our interpretation of the Act. In minor cases the fine is 5 to 100 lv (Art. 81(3)). In protected areas that are exclusive state property, which include the national parks and reserves (Art. 8(1)), items used in a violation are confiscated (Art. 84(1)).

Central Balkan fire ban. Order RD-148 of 14 July 2026 bans open fire "in any form, manner or occasion" across Central Balkan National Park from 13 July 2026, including at the fire places designated in the park's management plan (order, notice). The order gives no end date, and the park's news pages, checked on 27 October 2026, carry no notice lifting it. The bivouac area at the Byala Reka visitor complex is also closed until construction there ends; the Central Balkan waterfalls guide has the details.

Nature parks such as Vitosha follow the same rule as national parks: bivouac and light fires only at the designated places. On Vitosha, rest areas such as Vetrovala and Ofelii have built fireplaces (Vitosha guide).

Forests and fire#

The Forest Act does not ban tents, but it is strict about fire:

• Lighting fires in forest areas is banned except in the cases set by ordinance (Art. 138(2)). One of those cases is a marked and secured fire place (Art. 23(1)(5) of Ordinance No. 8 of 2012), signed "Място за палене на огън" ("Fire place"), a round hearth no more than 1 m across, ringed with stones or dug into the ground (Art. 26).
• Each year, the regional governor declares a fire season for the province by order, published on the websites of the regional administration, the regional forestry directorate and the Executive Forest Agency (Art. 137(1) and (2)). During it, open fire is banned within 100 m of the forest edge (Art. 137(3)).
• The Act has no fire-specific fine, so the general one applies: 50 to 500 lv for an individual, unless a heavier penalty is provided (Art. 270). A repeat offence within a year of a final penalty decision is fined three times over (Art. 272), and paying within 30 days of the penalty decision cuts the fine to 70% (Art. 272a).

Two other forest rules matter to campers. Dumping waste in a forest area is fined 200 to 2,000 lv (€102.26 to €1,022.58), and so is using forest roads in breach of the ordinance that regulates traffic on them (Art. 263(1)). Under Art. 148(7), driving on forest roads follows the conditions of that ordinance, so a forest track is not automatically open to a camper van.

Elsewhere inland#

Outside the coastal zones and protected areas, none of the national laws checked for this guide bans pitching a tent, in a forest or on open land. The Tourism Act defines a campsite as a guarded site with infrastructure for tents and caravans (§ 1, item 31), but it does not ban camping elsewhere. That is the absence of a national ban, not a right to camp anywhere:

• Land belongs to someone. Fields, meadows and the shores of lakes and reservoirs have an owner or user. Ask the owner, or the village mayor, before you pitch.
• Local orders. Mayors issue orders for specific places, as the mayor of Byala did for Karadere beach in 2026. Check the municipality's website for the area.
• Fire. Within 100 m of a forest during the fire season, no open fire is allowed.
• Smaller protected areas. Protected localities and natural landmarks have their own declaration orders with a list of banned activities; the Veleka mouth and Silistar orders, for example, ban camping outside marked places.

Camper vans#

The same place-by-place rules apply to camper vans:

• Coast: a camper on someone else's land in zone A or B outside a designated place falls under Art. 24v(1), and a camper on a beach or dune under Art. 30(3). The designated places under the ordinance are open to campers and caravans as well as tents.
• Parks: the Protected Areas Act bans bivouacking outside designated places but does not say in so many words whether a night in a parked vehicle counts. Use the car parks and designated places the park publishes.
• Forests: see the forest road rule above.
• Towns and roadsides: no national rule on overnight stays in a camper was reviewed for this guide. Follow parking signs and local rules.

How to check whether a spot is legal#

1. Is it a categorised campsite? Campsites are class B accommodation under the Tourism Act (Art. 3(2)), and categorised accommodation is listed in the Ministry of Tourism's National Tourist Register (Art. 166). A listing there is the clearest answer.
2. On the coast, is there a mayor's order? A designated tent and camper place exists only under a mayor's order, and the final order is published on the municipality's website (Ordinance, Art. 9(5)). On site, the rules and price must be posted at the entrance (Art. 18(3)). The season is 1 May to 30 September; outside it, no designated place may operate.
3. Is it in a protected area? Look the place up in the Executive Environment Agency's register of protected areas, which gives each area's category, map and banned activities. In a national or nature park, check the park directorate's website for designated places and current orders.
4. Is there a fire ban? Check the regional governor's fire-season order and, in parks, the directorate's news page.
5. On private land, ask the owner. Their permission answers the main question outside the special zones.

Fines in euro#

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026 at a fixed rate of €1 = 1.95583 leva (European Commission). The camping fines in the laws above are still written in leva. Under the Euro Introduction Act, amounts in leva in existing legal instruments count as euro amounts (Art. 11(2)), and acts that set fines in leva continue to apply under its conversion rules (§ 5(1) of its transitional provisions). The leva amount is divided by the full rate of 1.95583 and rounded to the cent (Art. 12, 13). The euro figures on this page follow that rule:

The law texts, park orders and register entries above were checked on 27 October 2026.