Generally too feek & weeble to wild camp but...
In the UK, there are spots which look OK and you can see whose permission to ask. When a landowner says yes you feel comfortable.
Also in UK, there are a lot of abandoned roads where they have built a new road to get rid of a bend. These are often ideal for an overnight stay.
In Spain, we tend to look for other vans. Although the police have been told to like motorhomes, local views can differ!
In Portugal there are so many places because the Portugese love their motorhomes and hate paying to park them for the night. Here we try to get somewhere by 3pm or all the spaces may be taken! I am told the Portugese have decided to make all their dams into aires. They have of lot of them, too.
In Italy we just ask in the villages and they will almost come with you to help you settle in!
Outside the UK, I always feel that we should make contact with someone local and try and spend a bit if only for a loaf of bread. Somehow that feels right and we feel safer too.

Patrick

I don't know if it the economy or what but Italians seem to be getting more and more into the whole camper van thing. We just did a short trip from Belluno, to Soave, Verona and Trento and I could not believe how many campers we encountered. The good news is that it seems the locals are not fussing about parking overnight in parking lots. And I suppose the economy plus the convenience of being closer to where they want to be is a factor.

The wild camping rules in Italy are not they straight forward but thankfully they seem pretty relaxed about it and there are superb sostas everywhere. My experience of Italian motorhomers is they seem much younger than other countries but that could be down to the fact that I am usually there peak season