You could also try New Zealand. You’re probably never more than 30 minutes drive away from a campsite. And if you get a self-contained vehicle it’s even better as you can park up virtually anywhere.
As a Kiwi, free-camping is restricted in NZ and for good reason, people need to make sure they're allowed to be there.
But also tourists make an absolute mess of the place a lot of the time. Other countries don't have the "tidy kiwi" mentality that we get growing up. I live in the UK now and the percentage of people that will just throw rubbish on the ground is extraordinarily high; I'll hold onto my rubbish until I find a bin, I have never once in my life thrown something on the ground.
Yeah, that’s why I mentioned getting a self-contained vehicle for freedom camping. The laws around self-contained vehicles are designed to solve the problems you discussed.
I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting freedom camping in a non self-contained vehicle, nor littering or other anti-environmental or illegal behaviour.
But anyone with a self-contained vehicle is well within their rights to freedom camp on council or public conservation land except where camping is explicitly prohibited. Alternatively, if you have a non self-contained vehicle, you’re never far from a legit campsite anyway.
I agree about the UK though, it’s next level. I was up in the lakes one time, can’t remember exactly where, but on the path from the carpark to the lake (maybe 500m) I noticed an insane amount of rubbish (some of it very old), so I grabbed every plastic bag I had and started collecting it. I received extremely dirty looks, people started handing me their rubbish (???), and an old man asked me what crime I had committed to be forced to do community service.
I struggle to understand the mentality of people who visit national parks for their beauty then ruin them by littering.
