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10 ultimate tips for safe hitchhiking in Europe


Once upon a time, you’d see them everywhere at the side of the road: young people with a big bag and a cardboard sign with their intended destination written on it. Nowadays, hitchhikers are no longer a common sight. In the summertime, you might see a few people with their thumbs up on a ramp, but this cheap and fun way of travelling is just not that popular anymore. That has not stopped us from starting our world trip by hitchhiking in Europe. We enjoyed our adventure so much that we recommend everyone tries it. To help you travel safely, I’ll share my 10 tips for safe hitchhiking in Europe below. These are the best stories about the people we met along the way.

Tips for safe hitchhiking in Europe

1. Smile!

Train your jaw muscles and practice your most beautiful smile! A smile creates confidence and helps demonstrate that you are harmless. As a driver, it is much more fun to take a cheerful hitchhiker as opposed to a grumpy one.

2. Hitchhiking in Europe: Make a sign

Take a few pieces of cardboard and a thick marker and write down where you want to go. It helps if drivers can see from a distance in which direction you need to go. We had loads of cars stopping, because they thought ‘well, we have to go into that direction anyway, we might as well take them along’. Our experience was that – despite our sign – there were still helpful people who had to go totally the other direction. That’s still better than no one stopping at all, right?
 
tips for safe hitchhiking in Europe

3. Hitchhike in Europe along highways

The best place to get a ride is at petrol stations that are situated alongside busy highways. Of course, it is smarter to stand on the same side of the road as the direction you wish to travel towards. Standing alongside the highway, you have a better chance that people are travelling a long distance and may even help you reach your destination.

4. Make conversation

Search actively for your new ride. We’ve noticed that people took us with them when we started making conversation. When we stood passively with our thumbs up along the road, hardly anyone was interested in offering us a ride. The parking lot at a petrol station is a perfect place for conversation. People will immediately see that you are a good person and they will offer you a ride when they can.

5. Avoid city centres

The most difficult place to find a ride is within the city centre. The traffic there usually runs for short distances and in a vast variety of directions. Chances that you find someone who goes to your destination and wants to take you with them are very small. So, try to avoid being dropped off in the city centre if you want to keep on going. You’d be better off getting out at the last petrol station before a city.
 



6. Trust your gut feeling

If someone offers you a ride but you feel like something’s wrong, don’t get in the car! There will be plenty of other opportunities. If you are not feeling comfortable, it will be a very tense ride and neither you nor the person who picked you up will enjoy it. There’s no fun in that for anyone.

7. Safe hitchhiking in Europe: Be flexible

Hitchhiking on a tight travel schedule is not a good idea. You never know how many cars will stop and how many kilometres you will get to travel in a day. It is therefore difficult to estimate in advance what time, or even on which day you will arrive at your final destination. Also, be flexible in terms of the destinations that you travel to in between getting from A to B. There is more than one way to get to your destination and if someone is heading in the right direction but through a different city than the one you had in mind, you should try to adjust your plans. With hitchhiking it’s more about the journey than it is about the destination.
 
Liften in Europa

8. Hitchhiking in Europe: Don’t go alone

It’s always a good idea to hitchhike with two people. You can discuss whether to take a ride or not and help each other if necessary. It helps if either one or both of you are women. We were told more than once that drivers trusted us because they saw a woman. They wouldn’t have taken two men. That’s definitely one of the tips for safe hitchhiking to remember.

9. Don’t get out at the same time

If your luggage is in the trunk, it’s wise not to step out of the car at the same time. The driver can then drive off with your belongings. It’s a good idea if one of the two gets out of the car to grab the bags and the other one stays put. We had such friendly drivers and didn’t think for a moment that something bad would happen, so we did not worry about this too much. But still – better safe than sorry.

10. Use Hitchwiki while hitchhiking in Europe

One of the best tips for safe hitchhiking is Hitchwiki. In Europe, it has become very easy now that you can access the internet across the EU without getting high roaming costs. We could always use Google Maps to see which way we had to go and locate petrol stations. We also used the website Hitchwiki . Hitchhikers review hitchhiking spots, so you can look up in advance whether you are going to a good place or not. In general, the reviews turned out to be pretty accurate.

Advice for drivers

Take a hitchhiker with you! It’s great fun and you help the traveller on his way. I sometimes hear people say that they would rather not take hitchhikers because they are afraid. But if you think about it; it’s a lot of trouble for someone with bad intentions to go all the way to the highway with a backpack and a cardboard sign, hoping someone will take them along, just so they can rob them of their belongings. Breaking into someone’s home or robbing someone in the street is much more direct and effective. If you still have doubts, you can always stop and ask where the hitchhiker is going. If you still don’t trust this person, you can always turn them down politely by telling them you are driving in the wrong direction.

Now that you know the best tips for safe hitchhiking, I’m sure you are also ready to take someone with you and help someone out! Have you ever taken a hitchhiker along with you? Let us know in the comments below!
 

Did you enjoy these tips for hitchhiking in Europe? Read more!

1. Why you shouldn’t volunteer at an orphanage abroad
2. How a small gesture leads to an inspiring story in Thailand
3. 6 shocking facts you need to know before you go hiking in Nepal
4. Why we choose to travel around the world without flying
5. The ultimate guide to sustainable traveling

Daisy
About me

Meet Daisy, freelance travel journalist, filmmaker and cookbook author. Some people know her as a leftover queen, others as a travel addict or a world improver. She can't be described with just one word. She travelled for a year as a travel reporter for Expedia in the Netherlands, held a TED talk about food waste, wrote two cookbooks about cutting down on waste and won the only professional prize for travel journalism with an article about her stay with the nomads in Iran. With this website, Daisy wants to show that sustainable living, travelling and eating consciously is not only simple but very valuable and enriching.

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