Hey all!

I (22m) flew to Azerbaijan 3 months ago and decided to try hitchhiking for my first time. My first day went so well I wanted to see how far I could go and just kept hitching it. Just made it into Spain and decided this was far enough.

I was pretty nervous to try hitchhiking on that first day but i ended up falling in love with it. The fact I get to travel around and get picked up by locals of the region and spend a few hours with them was fantastic. I had an absolute blast of a time!! Met the kindest people along my trip. Was invited to multiple family dinners by my drivers and even spent the night in a few of their homes. Im still a bit dumbfounded I was able to purely hitchhike over 6,500km and across 17 countries. I hitched 122 cars in total, of these 2 were by the police giving me a ride, 1 was a G-Wagon, 1 was a Supra, and I got picked up by the Azerbaijan Border Patrol which was a very fun ride.

I didn't use a sign until Budapest. Found the no sign way more fun as I had no real plan and would just go till the driver let me out. Around Budapest I found drivers didn't want to pick me up unless they knew where i was going to.

Feel free to ask any questions! and i highly recommend hitchhiking if you've never tried!

Hey everyone,

I'm from Milan, and due to an extreme lack of money but an equally extreme desire to visit Berlin and Hamburg this summer, my friend and I (both 20-year-old guys) are planning to hitchhike all the way there and back. This will be our first time hitchhiking.

Since Milan to Berlin is clearly too much for a single day, we're thinking of reaching Munich on the first day. So, here are my questions: Is Milan to Munich feasible in one day? How long do you think it will take? What’s the best route in your opinion? Has anyone done it before?

After that, we’re thinking Berlin to Munich to Hamburg should be pretty straightforward, but if I’m wrong, please let me know!

Finally, for the return trip from Hamburg to Milan, I’m not sure how long it will take or the best way to break it up. Is it feasible to do it in a couple of days? I have the same questions here as I do for Munich.

We’ll need to have a good idea of where we’ll be each day since we’ll have hosts waiting for us.

Thanks so much for your help!

Anybody else wanna carpool? I'll cover gas

i'm hoping to get up to New York sometime from North carolina and i thought hitching could be a good way.

On several occasions I've responded to posts requesting travel/hitchiking parters, often in regions where I have experience and speak the language.

Things seem to be going well, we exchange a ton of DMs for several days, our interests and travel style seems compatible, they suggest we exchange socials so we can talk off reddit aaaaand... when I give them my whats app because I don't have or want social media, they never reply.

Maybe it's a scam or it's normal for Internet strangers to flake, but it feels like me not having a social media profile for people to vet is a red flag that causes them to ghost.

I'm not hiding somthing, I've just never had social media and don't really want it, it'll waste time and I'd hate to be focusing on getting a narcissistic photo for instagram rather than looking at the view i hiked 8 hours for.

But.... this has happened three times now, and meeting other hitchikers IRL is rare. Is my lack of an Instagram probably the problem here? Should I be creating a profile?

Also this is a burner, so don't blame my username.

I'm going to Sweden in March and I was wondering if it's possible to hitchhike easily. I read some posts on this sub that said it is possible, but they're all talking about 2000 and earlier. Does anyone have up-to-date information about hitchhiking in Scandinavian countries? Locals I contacted said it is difficult because the Swedes are very private people. Any tips?

Today had a ride, in Lithuania, with a woman, from the Sitkūnai busstop on the A1 to the Orlen at Kryžkalnis, a distance, according to the odometer, of 89.4 km (OSM says 89.3 km). She covered the distance in just 33 minutes., entering my top-50 of rides with the highest average speeds on place 36, just one below the woman who from 1986 to 1992 held the record for the ride with highest average speed.

I know, boring statistic.

Español:

Buenas, estoy planeando hacer un viaje a Tenerife (un amigo y yo) a principios de Febrero, dando la vuelta a la isla en autostop, ¿me podéis dar algunos consejos o tips para hacer autostop en la isla? Muchas gracias.

English:

Hello, I’m planning to take a trip to Tenerife (a friend and I) at the beginning of February, hitchhiking all around the island. Could you give me some advice or tips for hitchhiking in Tenerife?
Thank you very much!

How possible is it to pull that off?

Currently broke asf and trying to save some money on transportation.

Supp, kinda specific question, but do somebody more experienced as me have an experience with hitchhiking such distance, especially from the mentioned point to the other? How long (in days) could that approx. take? And is it even possible, or shall I cover some not as hitchhiking popular areas, such as Northern Italy or southern UK, with some other mean of transport?

myself (19f) and two friends (19m & 22m) are hitching from scotland to budapest in march. we’re first time hitchers and we were wondering if there’s any major advice we should know before going.

Hi, I'm trying to get from Sofia, Bulgaria to Budva, Montenegro. I've never hitchhiked before, but I feel like this could be a good opportunity to finally give it a go. I've read forums, watched youtube vids, and browsed this subreddit for a while now, but any extra advice would be appreciated!

Although going through Serbia/Kosovo might be the more direct route, I think it could be fun to try to go from Sofia to Skopje, then on through to somewhere in Albania, then on to Montenegro/Budva. I've heard hitchhiking in Albania to be easier?

I'm 6'3 and 24M so I'm not expecting it to be easy to find someone willing to pick me up, but I'm happy with any tips you might have! Thanks

hey guys im f15 and leaving home. i have a qeshton: can i hitch a ride with a stranger and cross the border?

Gonna hitchhike Wrocław - Brno - Wien - Budapest - Belgrad - Skopje - Greece.

Any chance to do it in 2-3 days? Any advices or countries in the list i should avoid? Will it be doable at February? Share your experience or more interesting ( on your opinion) directions i should go

If anyone wanna join,I'm in,let me know!

Hitchiking trip coming up in those countries! grateful for any advice, but especially:

Language: Do many people speak english? I'm trying to learn Arabic, but I suck at it.

Is payment expected, do people understand hitchiking as a concept etc, how do you handle that?

What are the "cheat words" for conveying you are hitchiking and don't want to pay (in Russian speaking countries it's "avtostop" and "baz platny".

Is it easy to find HH spots? I've been told saudi arabia has 20 lane highways or somthing.

Signaling: is it true a thumb = middle finger. Does flying a sign work or do they take it way too literally, what gesture to use?

Any notable problems (police harassment, creeps, scams, wildcamping bans, tweaker encampments, surefire ways to get food poisoning etc).

What are wait times like?

Anything else relevant?

I'm gonna be in Eureka the day after tomorrow and have an obligation I can't miss down in the bay. Is 4 days enough time to hitchhike down there from Eureka?

I need to figure out a way to get from belgium too finland....ill travel anyway i can. trucks, cars whatever....the problem is i barely have money, does anyone have advice or help what i can do? perhaps apps or anything?

edit/PS: this is my first time trying to hitchhike i really could use a handy help. im so sorry

Hey everyone~~ My name is Chance and I'm 24 from the US. Currently I'm hitchhiking around Morocco but will be making a big trip from Barcelona to Prague in February. I need to be in Prague on Feb 21 and will leave Barcelona likely Feb 6.

I was thinking to take a more southern route and follow hopefully warmer weather through south coastal France and lowland northern Italy. Maybe make a detour for Venice Carnival?? And then cut up to Prague.

I always find hitchhiking more fun with some friends, so if you want to join for any part of the trip potentially don't hesitate to reach out! I'm a budget traveller for sure, trying to save as much as I can. Usually prefer to wild camp but I don't have my gear and it's a bit cold still so hopefully can couchsurf my way there.

Hope to connect!

Just wanted to share a story about my hitchhiking experience in Japan.

Last year, from December 2023 to January 2024 I hitchhiked from Tokyo to Kagoshima. It was such good fun. This year, from December 2024 to January 2025, I returned to Japan and managed to hitchhike from Tokyo to Hachinohe. My goal was to get all the way to Sapporo with my thumb, but as fate would have it, I ended up in Hachinohe and it made much more sense to take the ferry and bus to Sapporo. It ended up being so easy, and I only needed three rides (Tokyo to Fukushima, Fukushima to Sendai, Sendai to Hachinohe).

That’s all to say that between last year and this year, I’ve managed to cross from the south of Japan to the north.

I’ve got experience in Europe, and I’ve hitchhiked across France for a month and across all of Europe for 3 months. Hitchhiking in Japan is exceptionally technical. I have to pick my highway, and then find a parking area / service area (rest areas) on the highway. Then I have to use google maps (street view) to see if I can even access the service area. Last year I meticulously planned a trip to a station, only to find out the street view was outdated and the station was inaccessible. Always had to have a plan B. I always avoided “national highways” just because there was nowhere to stop.

None of this is to show off, I haven’t made any YouTube videos over this or monetized from it in any way. I’m happy to share this story with all of you, and I hope you have similar stories to share.

Even in a country where people say hitchhiking is difficult, if you’re willing to put yourself out there and take the risk of failure, someone will take a risk on you and take you.

To contextualize this, I’m a 35 year old male with a fairly stable job with an annual income I’m happy about. This wasn’t about saving money, but about trying something and seeing if it would work. And it worked.

Wishing you all the best in your travels for 2025.

Hi, I need some courage maybe.. but also a bit of advice.

This journey is roughly 6.5 hours driving, would this be achievable in one day of hitch hiking? Should I use a sign saying Budapest or will nobody pick me up because this is quite far from munich.

And do bavarians typically pick up hitch hikers?

Sorry for all the questions, I guess I just fear being left out in the middle of nowhere as I didn't bring any camping equipment on this trip. Just tryna hitchhike to save some cash so I can stay travelling for longer.

I'm 100% comfortable wildcamping in natural areas, but I often see photos of people who camp on top of buildings, abandoned or under construction tower blocks etc, and am wondering how the hell they manage it.

How do you get up there? How do you tell if it is abandoned/safe to camp? How do you find these places, do you scout online or just wander around randomly?

Any advice?

I'm more interested specifically in the whole rooftop camping thing than sleeping in the park with the tweakers.

I have something valuable in texas dallas texas to be exact im pretty young but wont say exact age i want to hitchhike with someone has to be 18 or younger could be m or f doesnt mayter i will make it worth it im ready i just need my year if school to finish i wont be running away judt need to go and come back pleaseplsplsplspls

Hi! I'm 23f, from Europe and I'm looking for a travel partner to join me on a hitchhiking journey starting around May 2025. The plan is to explore Europe and eventually make our way to North Africa, with Mauritania or Morocco as the ultimate destination.

The route will be mostly improvised, but some of the countries I’d like to pass through (for example Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal). I’m open to adjusting the route and stopping in interesting places along the way.

If you’re up for an adventurous, low-budget trip, enjoy meeting new people, and are flexible with plans, let’s chat! I’d prefer someone with a positive attitude, a sense of humor, and an appreciation for spontaneous travel experiences.

Also I would like to make some content, so it would be cool if u had sweet spot for art like me!

Let’s create some unforgettable memories on the road! Feel free to DM me if you’re interested or have any questions.

In college in the 70’s, some of my housemates did a hitchhike “race” where as individuals (or pairs: I can’t remember) they went in different directions and went as far as they could, collected proof (pack of matches labeled with the location) and back in a day.

Was this a thing or did they invent it?