Hitchhiking 101: See the World for Free!
The mathematics of travel are simple: the faster you spend your money, the sooner you have to stop and work. I hate working, so instead of spending my hard earned dollars on busses, trains and planes, I use my thumb.
(Top pic: Yuuri, hitching with me on the south coast of Australia. )
Hitchhiking is the cheapest way to travel, but it is much more than that. When you hitch, you meet lots of people. You meet people who live in the places you visit. You meet other travelers. You make a lot of new friends.
When you hitchhike, you have opportunities to make real connections. People will invite you to their homes, offer you meals, hot showers, and couches. Hitching brings out the best in people.
(Above: hitching has taken me amazing places. This is Festa Santa Tecla – Sitges, Spain.)
(Below: I am hitchhiking East from Marrakech, Morocco, to the Atlas Mountains and Sahara Desert. It took me a while, but I hitched all the way to the dunes.)
Get Started.
OK, hitchhiking isn’t complicated, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. :-)
All hitchhiking is a matter of chance. Some days are quick, some days are slow. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it, but you can give yourself the best possible chance by using some simple techniques.
– Always have a sheet map or GPS map of the local region in your pocket. When you talk to drivers, and ask them where they are going, you can refer to the map. This is especially important if you do not speak the local language well.
– Always have water with you. Sometimes you can get stuck in the middle of nowhere for hours at a time.
– Keep a thick, black marker and some recycled cardboard handy to make signs.
– Be prepared to be flexible about your destination. Sometimes a ride of a few kilometers can be a big help.
There are 3 Main Ways to Hitchhike.
1. on the roadside
2. at a service station
3. chat hitching
1. Roadside Hitchhiking
This is the classic way to thumb a ride. You stand on the side of the road, with an arm extended, and thumb raised.
To get a ride quickly, you need a combination of good presentation, and location.
What do I mean by good presentation?
– Look clean and tidy. You are asking people to share a small enclosed space with you. They won’t pick you up if you look like you stink.
– Face the traffic. People will be more likely to stop if they can see your face.
– Smile. (Some of my friends dance if they are in a hurry!)
– Display your backpack. Most people are more likely to give rides to travelers who look like they are going somewhere. You don’t want people mistaking you for an alcoholic going down the corner, or a prostitute.
– Sometimes using a sign will get you a ride quicker. If you use a sign, write it clearly, and make the text big enough to read from a moving vehicle through a dirty windshield. The biggest advantage of having a sign, is that it can do a lot of the work for you. If you are stuck in one spot for a few hours, you can hang the sign on your bag, relax and sit down. The sign is still telling drivers “pick me up!”
– Displaying a flag is a gimmick that has worked really well for me. I used to hang the Aussie (sorry, Australian) flag on my bag with my destination sign.
(Above: flying the colours in Thailand, en-route to Vientiane.)
I got the flag idea from Kent, the Dromomaniac. I don’t know exactly why it works, but I think a flag talks to people about who you are. You are sharing something about yourself with the driver before they even meet you.
Recently (2015-Feb) I have stopped putting the Australian flag on my backpack, and come up with something better. My new flag says exactly who I am, and what I’m about, and it is guaranteed to connect with people all over the world.
(Above: “hello! I’m in the Smiley Face Tribe!”)
The location part of the hitchhiking formula has to do with where you position yourself on the roadside: your pitch.
The best way to choose a pitch is by looking at a GPS map. You can easily get a free offline map for your smart phone. Figure out where the nearest road leading to your destination is. Look for nearby highways or arterial roads. You don’t want to be in a high speed zone, so look for entry ramps, roundabouts; places where drivers slow down. Service stations are great too. A 3 km walk is worth it, if it means you wait 5 minutes beside the highway, rather than 3 hours on a suburban road.
You need to give drivers space to stop safely. How much space they need depends on how busy the traffic is, and how fast the vehicles are going. Places to avoid are: merging lanes; rough or narrow shoulders; bus zones; and curves.
Put yourself in the place of the driver. Can they see you soon enough to think about it and then stop? Is there enough room on the roadside for them to pull over? Will they create a dangerous situation by stopping for you? A good pitch is somewhere you are clearly visible to oncoming vehicles, where they have time and space to stop safely.
(Below: I hitched all over Northern France in 2013. It was awesome!)
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Hitchhiking With a Friend.
If you travel with a buddy, or significant-other, you may find that it is harder to get rides. Some drivers only have one seat free. Some people are more intimidated by seeing two people together on the side of the road.
Try leapfrogging. One of you walks down the road just far enough to be out of sight. When the first person gets a ride, if there are extra seats in the vehicle, they can suggest picking up the second hitcher. This approach gives drivers a chance to meet you one at a time, rather than picking up two strangers at once. Even if you get separated, you can agree on a place to meet up, further down the road.
(Above: hitching with Nia in Italy.)
(Below: riding in the back of an ambulance with J-man in Thailand. Two six-foot-four dudes hitching together. We leapfrogged a lot. That’s me with short hair. My son is a freakin’ hippy.)
2. Service Station Hitchhiking
The second type of pitch is at a service station. Hitching from service stations is sometimes quicker than roadside hitching. Service stations also provide shelter and basic amenities like water, food and toilets, so they are good places to get dropped at.
The ideal spot is right outside the door to the service station shop. You still use your sign, and your flag, like you would on the roadside. While drivers are fueling their vehicles they will have plenty of time to see you, and read your sign. When the driver heads into the shop to pay for their fuel, you make your introduction.
I usually greet drivers with a friendly “hi”, and then follow up by asking “where are you going”. I also give them the thumbs up, to make it clear what I’m about. In each country you visit the first thing you do is find out how to say “where are you going” in the local lingo’. If they are confused, or what they say is unclear, show them your map, and get them to point to where they are headed.
Smile, be polite, and you will travel fast this way.
Hitchhiking from service stations is a relatively secure way to hitch. You get plenty of time to asses each driver, and chat with them before getting in their vehicle.
(Below: I hitchhiked to the Gawler Ranges, Australia, with these two amazing people.)
3. Chat Hiking
You can hitch a ride from anywhere, if you have the confidence and time to talk to strangers. Cafes, restaurants, parks, truck stops, supermarkets; any places there are people with vehicles, there are potential rides. A good introduction can be to ask people for directions, or local information:
“how do I get to X…? Oh, you’re going there? Can you give me a lift?”
What About the Psycho’s?
Many people I meet, especially women, have concerns about the safety of hitchhiking.
What if you get in some guy’s car and he turns out to be a murderous maniac?
First of all, it is worth remembering that really bad people are in the minority. The odds of a psycho coming down the road before you get picked up by a regular, decent human being, are negligible.
Most women who hitch alone get rides very quickly, not because the world is crawling with sleaze-bags but because someone kind sees them and wants to keep them safe.
All my female hitchhiker friends hear this a lot:
“I don’t usually stop for hitchhikers, but I can’t let you stay here where some nut might abduct you. Jump in.”
Almost everyone who stops for hitchhikers is an above averagely nice person.
Hitchhiking doesn’t make you feel unsafe, it affirms your faith in human kindness and decency.
When you talk to potential drivers, trust your instincts. If they seem pushy, evasive, intoxicated, or just give you the creeps, wait for someone else to come along. “Safety first” is the rule with hitching as it is with all extreme sports.
One woman I met, who has been a hitchhiker for more than ten years, told me about a cute gimmick she uses to screen potential rides.
When the driver pulls up, she says hello and finds out where they are going. If she wants to take the ride, she says as follows:
“I hope you don’t mind, but I promised my friend that I would keep in touch so she knows I am safe. I take a photo of the registration plates of every car I get into, and text it to her. Is that OK?”
If the driver shrugs and says “sure, go ahead” then she knows the ride is cool.
If the driver seems unhappy about the idea, or refuses, she says “thanks anyway” and waits for the next car.
(Above: I always hitchhike when I go to Confest. It’s easy to get a ride ’cause there are hippies from all over the world going there. This is Jo and Marie having a Confest bath.)
(Below: I love Thailand. I always hitchhike when I need to get around in the ‘land of smiles’. Thumbing a ride is easy, and Thai people are so friendly and helpful. Recently I got an opportunity to have my portrait painted in Chiang Mai. I don’t think I really look like this scary though. No one would ever give me a ride!)
On The Road
You are clean and friendly. You made a nice sign. You stood in the right spot… and you’ve got a ride. Congratulations! You are a hitchhiker!
Once you’re on your way, make an effort to communicate with the driver, and establish a rapport. Ask them about their lives, their kids, their work. Making friends with your drivers will make your hitchhiking more enjoyable.
If you can build a relationship of trust with the people in the drivers seat, they will go out of their way to help you out.
By offering friendship you are making hitching a two way street. As time goes by, you will accumulate a mental library of hilarious travel stories, to entertain your drivers with, too.
(Below: hitching with my folding bike in Oz.)
(Above: Cambodia is a challenge, hitchhiking, but worth the effort. This is Ta Prohm, one of the temple ruins at Angkor Wat.)
Once you are rolling down the road, be very clear about where you want to go. Try to find out exactly where your driver is headed, so you can figure out the best place to be dropped. Once again, a GPS map is a big help, but the basic thing is to make sure you don’t get dropped in a place that is hard to hitch from. If they happen to be going somewhere you want to be, that’s perfect, but if not, figure out where they can stop for you on the way.
The most common situation is that the driver is going into a town. If that town is not somewhere you want to spend time, then you will want to be dropped at a service station, or some other good pitch on the outskirts. Hitching from the middle of urban areas is always difficult.
Avoid the strag drop. Many drivers think they know better than hitchhikers where the hot pitches are. Be polite, be friendly, be respectful, but be clear about where you want to go. Hitching is not just about getting a ride, it is just as much about getting dropped in the right spot so you can get the next one.
Bon Voyage!
People are, generally speaking, a lot kinder and more helpful than we give them credit for. The key to hitchhiking is having the confidence to ask strangers for help.
The more you hitch, the easier it gets, and the more good people you meet, the more confidence you will have.
Apart from being a great way to travel, hitchhiking is a guaranteed way to make new friends. Never underestimate people’s generosity, and remember what Will Rogers said:
“a stranger’s just a friend you haven’t met yet”.
(Below: Will Rogers; a wise fella.)
What is Hitchhiking Really Like?
Read some of my hitching stories and find out! I have hitched in Australia, Asia, Europe and Morocco, and had amazing experiences everywhere I went.
(Below: In 2013 I hitched to the Sahara Desert. This is Merzouga, Morocco.)
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