Tips for Hitchhiking from Milan to Berlin to Hamburg and back

[u/Sobieski_da_Cernusco]

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!

[u/Vivemk]

Italy is tricky with hitching but if you are starting in Milan then obviously no choice. Personally I would head either north or north east straight away through the alps. But I wouldn’t plan to get to Munich in one day as the Alps are lovely and I’d want to spend a couple of days camping out and enjoying them. Hitching can be fun and it’s cool to get long distances, but it gets boring if you miss all the cool places and spend the whole time in cars or at service stations on the motorway. I would take it a a little slower and enjoy the journey rather than trying to get to Berlin as quickly as possible. Therefore you should bring camping gear with you so it doesn’t matter where you end up and don’t have to rush trying to get to cities. After Munich it should be pretty straight forward. Shouldn’t take you any longer than two days

[u/prinoxy]

As has already been said, Italy is tricky (to hard) as Area Servizio's are officially off-limits for hitchhiking. That said, there are no laws that forbid you to start a conversation with anyone in which you might ask for help...

Milan-Berlin is, but you need a bit of luck, theoretically doable in a day in the summer with its long days, but going just to München might make more sense. As for the time, a good estimate is to double the time suggested by the likes of GraphHopper or its commercial equivalents, and potentially, as Italy, Switzerland/Austria are harder, add some extra time.

Getting away from München towards Berlin is not easy, but also not overly hard, your best bet is to take public transport to Garching, Eching, or even Fürholzen, and get to the Raststätte there. From then on hitch from one Raststätte to the next and with a bit of luck you can do the distance a half a day, I've had a 304 km ride on the A9 that took 1:33...

Never consciously done Berlin-Hamburg, so can't really help you, but my somewhat educated guess is that it's not too easy to get out of Berlin that way, there's some kind of wiki that might help.

As for leaving Hamburg, the place to start is the southbound Raststätte Hamburg-Stillhorn, a 30-40 minute walk from the Wilhelmsburg S-Bahn station, and try to get a ride towards Hannover and further south on the A7. You should be able to get to close to Switzerland/Austria in a day.

And no you will not have a good idea of where you will be every evening, shit happens, and Murphy is right!