Thinking of hitchhiking? Why not! It's a fun, sociable, and interpersonal way to see a country - not to mention, it's free. 

I have hitchhiked in around 50 countries and credit hitchhiking with changing my life path. Before I started, I was enrolled in university to study a law degree. However, after hitchhiking through ex-Yugoslavia and discussing the breakdown of Yugoslavia with people from each of these country, I began to think about how communication breaks down between nations and how vital diplomacy is. From here, I pivoted to studying international security, going on to do a Masters with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, worked in foreign Embassies, and writing about security issues. All I can say is, I'm grateful that hitchhiking saved me from a five year law degree!

Is Hitchhiking for You?

Anyone can hitchhike, but there's a few things that you should keep in mind when deciding if this is for you: 

Be Flexibility with Times

Sometimes you may get picked up immediately, other times you may be waiting for hours. If you're pressed for time, hitchhiking may not be for you. 

Be sociable and talkative

Most people who pick up hitchhikers do so to have company and someone to talk to during the drive - providing there's no language barrier. The worst thing is picking up a hitchhiker who wants to sit silently on their phone. If you're not feeling sociable or don't like talking to strangers, maybe hitchhiking isn't for you. 

Brush up on the Local Culture and Customs

Make sure you're aware of cultural sensitivities, or good at adapting. Someone has opened their car and safety to you, so make sure to respect them. Particularly religious sensitivities - regardless of whether you are religious, atheist, or agnostic, please respect their beliefs. 

Gifts are Good

If I'm doing short-term travel, I may bring little gifts from Australia that my hitchhiking rides can hang off their rear view mirror (like koalas). These are always very popular! For long-term travel I usually bring snacks to share - biscuits, nuts, or things to nibble on. If you're a smoker, bring extra cigarettes to share. 

Be Open to New Friendships

Don't expect it, but if you're talking with your driver, you may end up befriending them, getting a meal with them, staying at their place, going out for drinks with them, or exploring the nearby cities and towns with them! 

Where to Stand - Tips for Getting Rides

Speed Limit

The best spots to be picked up are anywhere that cars are already going slow or even stopped. You will very rarely get picked up if the cars are going at 100km (60 miles) p/hour, because the driver doesn't have enough time to see you, make a decision, and stop. I recommend standing on roads that are going no more than 60km (37 miles) p/hour. In some countries it can be illegal to be walking on roads above 60km p/hour due to safety concerns. 

Stopping Space

The cars need to have somewhere to stop. You want a clear line of vision to you, so they can see you for at least a few seconds before they pass you. It's important that there's space behind you though for the car to stop. This can be a side strip on the road where cars can pull over safety, a bus bay, a parking lot, or a patch of grass. As long as the driver can pull off the road fully, they are more likely to pull over. It's very rare for a hitchhiking ride to stop the car before where you are standing, as there's always a delayed reaction time in coming to a stop!

Best Spots to Hitchhike From

If you're leaving a big city, you usually want to get to the outskirts of the city to hitchhike out, as most people inside the city will be going on small trips within the city. If you're already on the road, you want to stay as close to main highways, as people travel longer distances on these. 

The greatest spots are when cars are already coming to a complete stop. In my order of favourites: 

1. Péage/toll-booths - these are the absolute best, because the cars have to come to a complete stop to pay, and sometimes have to queue to pay. This gives the passing drivers a lot of time to decide whether they want to pick you up. 

2. Highway on-ramps - as long as there's ample stopping space, these can be great as well as people are coming to a slow before turning onto highways. Your more likely to find long-distance travellers on highways. 

3. After a roundabout - people have to slow to 20km-30km p/hour when going around roundabouts and sometimes have to stop completely, so again this gives lots of thinking time. Make sure you stand on the exit going the direction you want to travel to. Roundabouts are great as they're often the turning points between cities and further destinations. 

4. Petrol stations - people are completely stopped here for a few minutes, and if you're really stuck for a ride, you can even walk up to people with your sign and ask if they're going the right direction and would like company. 

5. Traffic lights - People are fully stopped at traffic lights and have time to think. There tends to be more traffic lights closer to cities though, rather than out on highways, so if you're going for traffic lights make sure they're towards the outskirts of the city, or on a road that leads straight towards your destination. 

6. Under Road Signs - signs indicating how far it is to the destination you're aiming for can be helpful, as you don't need to write your own sign. They also may indicate that the road you're on has a straight path to your final destination. And this way, you're listing multiple destinations in large print without having to write your own sign. 

Can Females Hitchhike Solo?

Absolutely! The same safety measures apply to both males and females, but I just recommend to be a bit more vigilent as a woman. I've hitchhiked in somewhere around 1000 cars, and I've only had one incident that made me feel unsafe. The man was saying the inappropriate things he would like to do to me, so I stuck my umbrella in his neck, yelled at him to pull over, then got out the truck and crossed the freeway to the other side. 

Trust your intuition! There have been around a dozen times that a car has pulled over and I've gotten "bad vibes", so declined the ride. Your intuition can be vital. 

If you're a bit nervous about rejecting rides after someone pulls over, you can utilise your hitchhiking sign. On one side of the sign, write the destination you wish to get to, and on the other side, write a city in the opposite direction. If someone is then insistent on giving you a ride, you can simply say you had the wrong side of your sign out. A sign isn't necessary though and you can just say that you've gotten the directions wrong and were standing on the wrong side of the road by accident. The sign just helps sometimes if they're insistent (and if ever anyone is insistent that you get into their car, that's a sure sign not to!). 

Safety When Hitchhiking

Tracking Where You're Going - Google Maps / Maps.me 

Make sure you have your route downloaded on Google Maps or Maps.me so that you have the offline map and can follow along the route even without wifi or reception. This is important to make sure you're not deviating massively from where the driver said they were driving. I usually travel with a hat - either to keep my head warm in winter or to keep the sun off me while waiting for rides. I then put the hat on my lap and the phone in the hat so that I can check it discreetly if I need, rather than sitting with my phone out the whole time. 

Do I Bring a Weapon?

I get asked this question all the time - should I bring a knife to defend myself? Absolutely not, no way in hell! Imagine a worst case scenario - you're being attacked by someone larger than you, and you pull out a knife. Are you realistically going to use it against them? Or are you essentially handing a potential aggressor a weapon? 

If you're thinking about bringing a weapon with you for general safety, you could consider pepper spray. But even then, you do not want to use pepper spray against someone who is driving the vehicle you are in - that could lead to a crash and put you in even more danger. 

A weapon is not necessary and I have never needed one. The worst situation I ever had hitchhiking had me sticking a pointed umbrella in a drivers' neck and yelling at him to stop the vehicle. It wasn't even a bad situation, and the umbrella probably wasn't necessary, although it did make for a funny story down the track. 

When to Refuse a Ride

Trust your intuition, sometimes you will want to refuse a ride. Some examples of rides I've refused: 

1. Car was backfiring and sparking as it drives due to broken suspension and the car hitting the ground over bumps. The car didn't seem safe

2. Car had four young men, all shirtless, who seemed a bit rowdy in the car. Could have been a fun ride but also could have led to a bad situation. 

3. The passenger was doing a line of cocaine off the dashboard when the car pulled over. High probability of the driver being intoxicated too. 

4. The driver and their passenger had a bottle of vodka between them. Not taking my chances there.  

5. I've been in many trucks when the truck driver has pulled a couple of beers from their mini-fridge and offered me one as well. It's not safe to be with someone who's drinking a beer while driving, but it does happen quite often, especially with truck drivers who are travelling long distances unfortunately. If the driver goes for a second beer, I'll usually ask to be let out early.

How to Get Out of a Ride Early

If your intuition is telling you something's wrong (the driver is intoxicated, inappropriate, or making you uncomfortable), here are some things you can say to get out of the car early without being rude: 

1. If there's any landmarks that you're passing, say you'd like to see them. This could be nice trees, an attraction, a waterfall, a church, or anything that catches the eye. Keep an eye out for road signs indicating an attraction as well. 

2. If there's the names of any towns you're driving through on road signs or shops, exclaim that you recognise the town's name, and that you met a friend recently who said they were from here. You could have met this friend in a hostel or in another hitchhiking car, and they told you that you should visit their home town. Ask to be let out and that you're going to see if you can get ahold of that friend and catch up with them. 

3. If you need to escape a car urgently, say you've got car sickness and think you're going to throw up. If there's a language barrier, start gagging and tapping the door urgently to signal a need to stop. Once they pull over, you can make a run for it. This isn't a great technique though for getting out of the car politely without upsetting the driver. You could potentially say that you get car sickness often and that you need to have a breather for half an hour, and ask them to continue without you, but most people will feel uncomfortable leaving a sick person on the side of the road. 

Hitchhiking at Night

This is really unsafe, and if your priority is safety, try to avoid hitchhiking at night - especially if you are alone, or if there are no men in your hitchhiking group. If you're going to do this, make sure you bring a tent so that you can sleep in a field if it gets too dark or cars stop passing. There are more likely to be intoxicated people driving at night than in the day, so don't let your desperation to get a ride cloud your judgement on safety. And if possible, I strongly suggest you avoid hitchhiking at night if you don't have data on your phone - it may get to the point where you desperately need to get inside a hotel and call it a night, and you want to be able to contact any accommodation nearby and see if they have rooms, as very few accommodations outside major cities have 24/7 receptionists, and if you're somewhere remote and the nearby accommodation has already had all their guests check in (or has no guests), they're unlikely to answer the door if you rock up unannounced in the middle of the night! Note - you shouldn't book a room on booking.com in the middle of the night and rock up expecting that they've seen the booking notification. Find their number either through google, whatsapp, or their social media pages, and give them a call or text directly. 

I did hitchhike with a male body builder for three weeks many years back. He was great fun to travel with and I got to travel in a completely new way - by hitting up the gym in every town we went to. The downside was that by the time we were finished at the gym each day it was usually around 5pm, meaning we had very limited light. Because he was quite a strong and threatening looking person, I felt safe hitchhiking late at night, but it still wasn't ideal. We got stuck quite a few times and it caused a lot of stress. There was one night where we'd gotten to almost midnight, hadn't gotten a lift for three hours, and no one was pulling over. Exhausted, he went to sit down. The next car pulled over, seeing me standing alone. As soon as he stood up though, the car sped off, clearly only interested in picking up a singular female. The next car was the exact same, speeding off when they saw my male friend. The third car was actually a tractor, and the driver reluctantly offered to drop us off at the next town so we could get a hotel, provided we didn't mind sitting on a bundle of hay. Not a safe situation but we were grateful for the lift! 

Emergency Contact & Photograph the Number Plates

If you're hitchhiking, you may want to have a friend (in the same time zone) who you can contact if things go wrong. If you have a SIM card with data, you can also set up regular check ins with them, or text them the number plates of each car you get into. 

Personally, I find this awkward and time consuming, as when a car pulls over you generally run to it quickly to check where they're going, and it sets a bad tone of distrust if you're taking pictures of their car before you hop in. Whilst I see people recommend this online all the time, I've never actually met a hitchhiker who does this for every ride. 

However, a get around is that you you could take a photo or video of the number plate as you run to the car (doesn't matter if it's a bit blurry) and have your phone set up to automatically upload pictures to your google drive / the cloud. As long as you have data, this will automatically load these pictures to the cloud without you having to text anyone. Then have someone back home that you trust (a parent, a partner, a sibling, a best friend) who has the login to your G-Drive/iCloud and who knows to log in and check if they haven't heard from you. 

If you're talking with your hitchhiking drivers, ask to keep in touch. I've added many drivers on Facebook and Instagram, and always said that if they ever come to my country, I'll drive them around. Surprisingly, a couple of them actually have taken me up on this, which is great! Once in touch, some will often check in on you a day or two later to make sure you made it safely to where you need to go. I've even met up with some drivers again and stayed at their houses after keeping in touch. Past drivers can also make for great emergency contacts in case something does go wrong, as they're local to the area, can help out quickly if you need, or can help translate if you have a language barrier with someone else. 

Hitchhiking Signs 

Long and Short Distance Signs

Signs aren't necessary, but they can be helpful if you're trying to get to somewhere specific, or if you're travelling on roads that go in many directions. If you're travelling a long distance, you may need to take many rides along the way to get to where you want to go. Sometimes you get lucky (I once thought a hitchhike from the south of France to Belgium would take me 3-5 days, but the first person who stopped was going to Brussels!). Other times, it takes hours to travel small distances. I like to use cardboard signs and carry a black marker with me - the thicker the better. For the signs, you can often find cardboard on the side of the road and reuse this. If I see somewhere with a lot of boxes, I may take cardboard for 4 or 5 extra signs if needed. 

If you are travelling a long distance, such as from Melbourne to Sydney (a 9-hour straight drive), putting "Sydney" on the sign may dissuade people going only part of the distances. Instead, you may want to write the name of a bigger town only an hour away. As you get to more remote areas, you may write towns that are two hours away. If you're struggling to get rides that are going in the right direction because there are lots of small towns nearby, maybe try writing signs for towns that are closer. You can even write two names on the sign, such as your final destination, "Sydney", and a town around the half way mark, "Albury". 

Often people will pull over and tell you the name of the town they're going to. If you don't know the area, you may not know where these towns are. This can also be challenging to communicate if you don't speak their language. On the back of my final destination sign, I'll often write the names of all the major towns on the road between my start and end location. That way, when the driver is telling me where they're going, I can flip over my sign and show them all the towns that I'm hoping to pass through, and they'll either nod and point to whichever town they can drop you near, or shake their head and say they're going a different direction. For example, if hitchhiking from Melbourne to Sydney, I may have a Sydney side that has "Albury" (a big town around half way) written on the back, and then a list of the following towns in one of the corners: 

Melbourne
Wallan
Tallarook
Euroa
Benalla
Albury
Holbrook
Tarcutta
Gundagai
Yass
Goulburn
Campbelltown
Sydney 

You may not get a ride straight from Melbourne to Sydney, but if your ride is going to any of these smaller towns along the way, you're on the right path. The further away from the big city you are, the more likely people are travelling long distances, and the more likely you'll get a long ride. 

Whiteboard Signs

You can also consider carryng a small whiteboard that you can reuse. This can be convenient if you're hitchhiking long distances and need to write multiple signs, although it can be a pain to have to carry a sign when not hitchhiking. 

Other Things to Write on Signs 

You can write the word "please" or "thank-you" on a sign, but only do this if you're somewhere that the cars are going under 60km (37 miles) p/hour - any faster and the drivers may only see the word please, and not the destination! 

If you've been stuck for a while and haven't gotten any rides, you can try a different approach with your signs. You could try changing the sign to "north", or "east" to indicate a general direction, or write something that entices people to pull over, such as: "tells jokes", "let's talk politics", "has snacks", "freshly showered", or any other short things that could encourage someone to pull over. Try to avoid having more than three words on a sign though, as people need to have time to read it!