Hitchhiking Europe....Good idea?

[London Ben]

Thinking about travelling across Europe (alone). How would I go about hitchhiking?

You know, with the different language barriers and stuff.

Would it be easier if I just bought a car?

 

[oki]

you should be fine, its not allowed in every country i think but wouldnt let that bother you, just do some reseach on that.
and most europeans speak some english, even in france and germany, who are famous for refusing to speak english because they think everybody should know their language..
for teh rest, just make destination signs, and go for the beginning of highways to hitch. and some common sense on safety.

 

[kickthatshit]

It's incredibly easy to hitchhike in Europe. If you're worried about communication difficulties, go get some copies of Lonely Planet books from your library, xerox the language cheat sheets out of the back, then try to memorize the most important words as you enter another country. (There are also some useful hitchhiking themed foreign language cheat sheets that you can find online.) If you're going to eastern Europe, learn to read cyrillic so that you can correctly pronounce place names and read road signs.

On a longer time-line, I'd suggest picking up some French, German, Italian, or Russian so that you have another language to work with if English fails you.

 

[Cardboard]

I have hitched between spain and sweden probably 10 times in the last 2 years. Its really easy. for sure, go for it. A bit difficult in Spain, especially the south, but if you are alone it makes it easier.
Where do you plan to go?

 

[London Ben]

Through Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Denmark as well as some Scandinavian countries.

Most of Western Europe I guess. Will head East in the next few years.

 

[Cardboard]

cool, done it a hell of a lot in the last years. I have covered all of France, most of Spain, all of Germany... Im currently on the French German border after hitching up from southern Spain last week. its really easy, everywhere except southern Spain (we had mixed luck in portugal). there are certain areas to avoid, for example, Northern France can be a pain in the ass. On the west side, all roads lead to Paris, and it WILL drag you in. The center of France (Alsace/Lorraine) , can as well be really difficult, I guess with all the toll roads in France, a lot of people go through Germany instead. However, look at a map, consider junctions in highways if you have somewhere to be, and avoid/try to pass cities that are highway clusterfucks (Lyon or Mannheim are easy examples if you want to look at google maps for an idea...)
Also, take care of sparsely populated areas, for example, hitching in Sweden can be a pain in the ass if you get a short ride. Malmö-Stockholm is an easy ride to find, but if you accept a short ride and end up in Odensjö, you might be stuck for days.
Dont forget Hitchwiki.org, and be active with it to keep it useful and updated for the rest of us. If you have specific route questions, hit me up, or if you want to meet sometime, Im usually game.

 

[London Ben]

cool, done it a hell of a lot in the last years. I have covered all of France, most of Spain, all of Germany... Im currently on the French German border after hitching up from southern Spain last week. its really easy, everywhere except southern Spain (we had mixed luck in portugal). there are certain areas to avoid, for example, Northern France can be a pain in the ass. On the west side, all roads lead to Paris, and it WILL drag you in. The center of France (Alsace/Lorraine) , can as well be really difficult, I guess with all the toll roads in France, a lot of people go through Germany instead. However, look at a map, consider junctions in highways if you have somewhere to be, and avoid/try to pass cities that are highway clusterfucks (Lyon or Mannheim are easy examples if you want to look at google maps for an idea...)
Also, take care of sparsely populated areas, for example, hitching in Sweden can be a pain in the ass if you get a short ride. Malmö-Stockholm is an easy ride to find, but if you accept a short ride and end up in Odensjö, you might be stuck for days.
Dont forget Hitchwiki.org, and be active with it to keep it useful and updated for the rest of us. If you have specific route questions, hit me up, or if you want to meet sometime, Im usually game.

Woah, thanks man. Really appreciate the help