If you ask me, hitchhiking is the best way to travel!
I have met very interesting people who I probably wouldn't have met elsewhere when I've been hitchhiking. Hitchhiking brings a lot of excitement never knowing who will pick you up, or when. If you don't have a time limit and not a very detailed travel plan, hitchhiking is the best way to experience a new country.
You will most likely end up meeting a local who can give you a good insight in the country you are visiting, and you get to see the surroundings together with a local - it's almost like free sightseeing. If you are lucky, your driver might even do a detour to show you some cool spots, which has happen to me several times. If you are even luckier the driver might invite you for lunch, coffee or offer to drive you further just to get you to your destination. I usually try to be the one offering to buy the driver a coffee or lunch, but there are drivers getting so happy to get company in the car during their long drive so they simply want to show THEIR appreciation. Hitchhiking is simply a win-win both for you and the driver!
I don't only hitchhike to save money, but rather for the adventure, excitement and experience. Several times I have ended up having great experiences, inspiring conversations and making new friends with the driver and other passengers in the car. I've hitchhiked in Europe, South America and India, and I never felt unsafe. My 3 best hitchhiking experiences were:
1. Hitchhiking through the whole north Chile from Santiago to Peru. I was very young and naive, and hitchhiking through the hot Atacama desert might not have been the safest thing to do, but it was an adventure. A truckdriver took a detour with me and my friend to show us an enormous stone hand made in the middle of the desert, something we would never have seen on our own. Ps: it's good to know a little bit of Spanish if you are ever considering to do something similar.
2. Hitchhiking from Spain to Sweden. After hitchhiking around the whole Spain in a very spontaneous way, sleeping on beaches, in parks and at random people's houses, it felt obvious to continue hitchhiking all the way home. Together with a friend of mine we met many interesting people on the way, and many nice drivers. We ended up hitchhiking with the police in Belgium, after staying in a suburb called Molenbeek outside Brussels. This suburb is not considered very safe, so the police offered us a ride when they saw us hitchhiking. It didn't seem like they had anything better to do...
3. Hitchhiking from Stockholm to Berlin. Together with my cousin we were going to Germany for a family gathering with our German relatives, and wanted to travel the fun way by hitchhiking down to Berlin. On the way down south in Sweden we got a ride with an old man who asked if we wanted to join him to his family house in the countryside. We lost some time, but it was worth it. He turned out to be working as a physiologist and we had many interesting conversations together.
I have also been hitchhiking from Holland to Berlin with my friend who was living in Groningen, Holland at the time. It was also a smooth trip: and as you can see, we had a quickly and spontaneously made sign.
Top 5 hitchhiking tips!
1. The sign
Without a good sign you simply wont make it. Whether to get picked up or not depends on it. Make sure that your sign is a) big enough and b) the text is clear enough. Drivers will pass by with a high speed, and they only have a few seconds to make a decision; from the moment they spot you until the moment they have to start slowing down if they want to pick you up. Making sure the driver can see your sign from far away and will know where you are heading. That will increase your chances that the driver will actually stop and pick you up.
Ps: cut your sign from a piece of cartoon and it will last longer. You can ask in the nearest supermarket if they have a spare piece of cartoon for you. In fact, most of the time when I have been doing spontaneous hitchhiking I have created my sign in a corner of a supermarket, borrowing a pair of scissors, a black marker and a piece of cartoon - people are more helpful than you think!
2. The destination
Is your final destination a small town? In that case it might be unlikely that any driver passing you will be driving there. By writing a more known destination close by to where you are heading, or simply just the direction of where you are heading, you increase your chances of getting a ride. Tips: in Spain I simply wrote "Al Sur" on my sign, which means "southwards" as I just wanted to get south from Barcelona.
Spain is one of the hardest countries to hitchhike in, especially the south of Spain where it's not very normal to see hitchhikers on the road. locals are quite suspicious and aren't used to pick up hitchhikers, so getting a ride is hard. By being as flexible as possible, and preferably not have a final destination of the day, you can succeed to hitchhike even in the most difficult countries. And be patient - I sometimes had to wait for many hours, but someone will always stop sooner or later.
3. The spot
The by far most important aspect to succeed with your hitchhiking is standing at a good spot. That requires a) a visible spot where drivers can see you from far away and b) a safe spot (never by a highway!) and c) a spot that's convenient for drivers to stop at. If you stand by a road where drivers generally drive fast, keep in mind that it needs to be possible (and legal) for drivers to stop by. Usually they can not just slow down anywhere, but need to turn off the road to be able to stop.
A bus stop is usually an ideal place to stand at, as long as it's big enough for cars to be able to stop by. Highways are in general tricky. I have managed to get a ride a few times by an exit or entrance of a highway but most drivers wont stop as it's actually illegal. If you are hitchhiking by a highway it's much better to stand at a gas station or parking lot. In Europe this works very well, especially if you are hitchhiking on an autobahn in Germany - there are frequent gas stations and food courts along the way, so called "rastplatz".
If you are hitchhiking in the Netherlands, there are actual spots specially made for hitchhiking called "liftplaats" around the country. You can also find similar designated spots in Belgium too.
4. Should you trust your gut feeling?
It's important to stay safe while hitchhiking. I have never been having a bad experience when hitchhiking, but getting into strangers cars always comes with a risk. However, I have noticed after years of hitchhiking and traveling that my gut feeling seems to be mainly based on rumors, horror movies, books, prejudices etc.
Those men my gut feeling has been "warning" me from usually turned out to be the nicest and friendliest men ever. Those few seconds you have to decide whether to step into a strangers car or not are way too short to be able to make a fair judgement of a person simply based on that first impression you get of him (most of that impression based on his look). If a man looks creepy and you straight away start associating him with a serial killer from some Hollywood movie and your gut feeling screams "no!"? If you'd feel too uncomfortable sitting in his car next to him, then obviously you can kindly refuse the ride and wait for someone else to pick you up. However, myself I prefer to rather trust facts and statistics than my "gut feeling", which is why I've kept in mind that the people looking the most innocent and nice, are usually the bad ones, and then people looking sketchy, are usually the nice ones. Based on statistics, most of the men that will harm you in your life, are gonna be men you already know.
Of course, it's important to use your common sense and make sure you are aware of the risks you are taking.
5. Good manners
I usually don't offer the driver to pay for the trip or the petrol. I don't think hitchhiking should be about money, but rather about helping people out and the pure interest in meeting new people. I see it as good manners though to offer to invite the driver for lunch/coffee if you stop by a roadside restaurant or a gas station - or buy a bag of snacks for the driver.
Myself I have never really been hitchhiking to save money, but rather for the adventure, to meet new people and to experience new things. Therefor I would be more than happy to offer the little I can do to make the trip nicer for the driver, in return for his ride - a coffee, snacks or a nice lunch. And obviously the most important thing you can offer that's totally free - your great company, good conversations and entertainment that surely will make the ride more enjoyable for the driver. Maybe he/she will have such a enjoyable ride with you that he/she will surely pick up another hitchhiker next time he/she sees one.
Bonus tips!
Check out the website hitchwiki.org, it has been a good assistance for my hitchhiking trips. You can basically be looking up any city all small town in the world and good spots to stand if you are hitchhiking in or out of this town. A great way to get advice from your fellow hitchhikers!
If hitchhiking isn't your thing, but traveling by car is, a road trip might be the perfect way of traveling for you. I love doing road trips and have done many both in Europe and in Asia.
One of my favorite road trips was the road trip I did in the United Arab Emirates. We rented a fancy Chevrolet Camaro in Dubai and traveled through the whole country. Want to read more about this trip? Check out my next blog post about driving in the UAE here!
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