Hitchhiking in Europe

Hitchhiking in Europe is a pleasant way to meet lots of people, and travel without spending too many euros. Don't forget to check out the tips for hitchhiking.

The viamichelin.com route planner can help you planning your itinerary.

The Marco Polo Euro Atlas is great (but not for Eastern Europe), it has detailed information about gas stations on the highway and doesn't contain unnecessary city maps. It can be found in Slovakia and probably other countries...

Eastern Europe

The attitude in Eastern Europe towards hitchhiking is very relaxed. Money is rarely requested (exception - Ukraine). Majority of the fast roads fall short of being western highways; walking and hitching on them tends to be OK. When travelling long distance, make sure you don't get stuck in the middle of a smaller village - walking out of it will take forever. Check with the driver, and get off either before, or better yet, after you pass the city. Most drivers will be nice to offer a ride to get you to the convenient location.

Northern Europe

Denmark

Great country to hitchhike. When crossing by ferry, try to get into a car that already paid for the ticket.

Finland

Good, getting a ride is usually not very difficult, as long as there are enough cars driving by. The most difficult task is getting out of Helsinki. Summer offers long light hours, but in the fall/spring you should plan your time. The highway between Helsinki and St. Petersburg (Russia) has very high percentage of Russian drivers.

Iceland

Low traffic in areas outside Reykjavik make hitchhiking in Iceland an endurance sport.

Norway

Hitchhiking in Norway is best on the north–south routes. East–west traffic is very low. Don't try hitchhiking out of Oslo's airport.

Sweden

Sweden has a reputation for being a pretty difficult country to hitch in, though it's still quite possible to hitchhike. Asking at gas stations works pretty well. It's also nice to combine with walking, on low traffic roads...

Southern Europe

Italy

As long as you stay on the Autostrada, hitching from one "Area Servizio" to the next, you will not have any trouble crossing the country. Off the Autostrada things are a bit more difficult!

Portugal

Spain

Not many Spanish people take hitchhikers. It is a good idea to try to get a long ride at the border with France.

In general, best results are obtained by hitchhiking from rest areas on the motorways, or major petrol stations on secondary roads. It is acceptable to approach drivers as they're refuelling and ask them if they would give you a lift to wherever it is you're going—approach young drivers, truckers, or vacationers preferently, in this order.

Western Europe

Belgium

The best place for hitchhikers. Just ask for a lift :) Having cardboard signs with towns' names on it can really help to get a quick lift.

Leaving Brussels: Heading South (e.g. Namur)get to the underground station named 'DELTA'.

Next to it you have a huge 'park and ride' and a bus stop. Hitchhiking near the bus stop should get you a ride in less than 5 minutes during traffic hours.

Heading to Ghent/Bruges: Good spot near the Shopping Mall called 'Basilix' in Berchem-ste-Agathe.

You can reach this place with the bus N°87. An alternative spot to go to the north is in Anderlecht, near the Hospital Erasme (Underground station Erasme.)

Heading to Liège/Hasselt: Take the pre-metro to the station 'Diamant'in Schaerbeek. When leaving the station you should see a lot of outgoing cars just underneath you. Just walk and follow the roadsigns mentionning 'E40'. You should arrive in a small street giving access to a road joigning the E40 (the cars are leaving a tunnel at this point). Just hitchhike on the emergency lane at this point, in the portion near the tunnel. Cars should still be riding slowly at this point and see you are visible to them, so it's not that dangerous.
Leaving Louvain-la-neuve(university)to Brussels (north) or to Namur (south), stand at the roundabout next to exit/entrance "8a" near to "Louvain la neuve-centre" road signs. Quick lift garanteed.

Avoid exit 7 or 9, since they have far less traffic.

France

France is a great country for hiking. There are many friendly car and truck drivers. The highways cost money, and at some tollbooths (French: péages) you can get a hike easily. At some tollbooths all the traffic has to stop and pay - these are excellent spots to get a long ride further.

You can get free maps in the toll offices - these also indicate where you can find the "all-stop-Péage".

Some tollbooths are really good, some not so good. If you've been waiting for a while with an indication of where to go, drop it and try with your thumb only. And also, you can try to get a ride to the next good spot in the wrong direction.

Note, though, that hitching from a péage, while a common practice, isn't legal and French police or highway security, who are normally very tolerant of hitchhikers, may stop and force you to leave.

Germany

Germany is fast once you get on the Autobahn, with many trajects without speed limits, going with normal cars you can expect to wait less than 1 hour between the lifts (lone male) and each lift taking you 100-200 km.

On the gas stations you can get a free booklet Tanken und Rasten with a map of the autobahn and indications of gas stations. When getting a lift, agree with the driver where to get of, and make sure there is a gas station. Try to avoid the Auto Hofs.

It is difficult and dangerous to get on the Autobahn so it pays off to sleep near the gas stations if you are going far.

If you are using a cardboard sign, each city has a 1-3 letter code that the drivers know. This code is also on the registration plates so you can use it to pick out cars likely to go in your direction. This may also lead to confusion though: B is Berlin not Belgium.

In the weekend the Deutsche Bahn has Schoenes Wochenende tickets, which allow up to 5 people to travel on one ticket. Often there are less than 5 people travelling on such a ticket, and you can ask people if you can go with them - look for couple or groups of 3 or 4 people!

Great Britain

Okay - if you use signs, it's fairly custom to use the number of the road on them. In other words, from Birmingham to London you wouldn't use a sign "LONDON", but rather "M25". Two places where signs are quite useful are Land's End and John O'Groats, the two extremes of the country, especially if your sign says the other.

Note that traffic in more remote areas of Scotland can be quite scarce.

Ireland

Okay.

The Netherlands

Generally okay. Not okay on small towns or non-highway but gas-stations at highways are quite good places. So try to stay on the highways!

There are official hitchhiking spots (liftershaltes) in at the center or edge of 7 cities. Check out Wikipedia for more info.

Websites

http://www.digihitch.com/world/Europe/ - digihitch World: Hitchhiking Europe (searchable map with hitchhiking tips, useful phrases, discussions, links, more)
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/kjokisal/liftaus/main.html - Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe (tells you good places to stand when heading out of towns)

Finding a ride online, usually for money

http://www.compartir.org - Multilingual
http://www.viajamosjuntos.com - Spanish
http://www.digihitch.com - English
http://www.hitchhikers.org - Multilingual
http://www.mitfahrzentrale.de - German/English
http://www.mitfahrgelegenheit.de - German
http://www.taxistop.be - Flemish
http://europe.bugride.com - English
http://www.autostop.lt - Lithuanian/English
http://www.drivetoday.de - French
http://www.coche-compartido.com - Spanish
http://www.drive2day.it - Italian
http://www.hitchhikers.de - German
http://www.drive2day.de - German

http://www.drive2day.com - English

The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, Antoine, Branimir Dolicki, Morgan 'Sal'man, Wikitravel user DrAwesome, Yuri Astrakhan and the following WikiTravel users: Brendio, Guaka, Huttite, Jpatokal, Nzpcmad. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/Hitchhiking_in_Europe.