I have spent most of my money on the last trip in South East Asia and made some small trips during since. Long story short, my savings are draining. But you know, that’s the life of a traveller – we don’t really have a luxury life to save all the money to travel the world, spend it all and save again. However, there will be nothing stopping us from travelling as long our heart and mind are strong.
With a tight budget, my mind came across Hitchhiking. I have never dared to do it and there is no reason for that . That’s why, I have decided to hitchhike this summer. I will be hitchhiking to 5 countries, 25 cities in Europe for about 2 months. I don’t know the proper way to do it but I’m gonna learn and figure out the way. All trips will be taken spontaneously so there will be no date scheduled.
My trip will first start from Cologne, Germany on 9 July. Here are following planned destinations:
Germany
Mannheim – Heidelberg – Stuttgart
Switzerland
Zurich – Lago Lugano
Italy
Lago Como – Milan – Genoa – Cinque Terre – Pisa – Luca – Florence – Siena – Bologna – Modena – Verona – Venice – Trento
Austria
Innsbruck – Linz – Vienna
Czech
Cesky Krumlov – Prague – Brno
Slovakia
Bratislava
Hungary
Budapest
Angela Koblitz 
I didn’t read Rome though! You should come! 🙂
I really want to go there but I probably fly there somewhere this year. Rome must be very exciting
Great plan. You don’t see so many people hitching now, although I hitchhiked everywhere when I was younger. Great if you have lots of time and no real hurry.
I have never done it before so I’m quite nervous. Any advice for me?
Just trust your instincts really. I don’t believe it’s dangerous, and I think you can meet some awesome interesting people.
I wouldn’t do it now simply because bus fares are so much cheaper now and I don’t have the patience these days.
Good luck though. I think you’ll get some excellent stories to tell.
Glad your trips ended well. If you get the USA, one huge and free tip: no hitching, ever, anywhere, anytime. We are not like Europe or African (where hitching is part of the normal way of travel in rural areas), and someone I once went to college with is no longer around because they did this in my country. It’s something I think about decades later, with great sadness. I don’t ever really talk about it. I’m sounding like an old person, cause I am, and have done this in Europe, African, South America, and North America. So, I can say, don’t do like I do, which is bogus, but also true. Other than that, hope you keep gaining wisdom.
That’s interesting because I actually thought it was more common to hitchhike in the US. What could it happen though? I’m sorry to hear about your old mate, I don’t know what had happened but it must have been terrified to get the notice. I’m planning to hitchhike in Australia the end of next year as well. Do you have any reference?
It was a really bad crime that eventually solved years later after the disappearance, but it has stayed with me forever, and I’m sure with the victim’s family forever too. However, this article disagrees with me from a data perspective. https://wandrlymagazine.com/article/hitchhiking/. I use my own personal experience, which I balance with data. Both are equally relevant. I had some bad experiences where I could have been killed, by the driver on a lonley road in Chile and where I feared those offering a lift were pretty bad and wasn’t sure I would walk away, in rural Montana. However in Africa, where this is how many people have to commute, it’s a different reality, and the hazards of driving on the road were a real health threat. Wisdom is a wonderful thing when you learn from it, but if things go sidewise, you’re not around to prosper. I personally wouldn’t hitch in Australia if I were a single female, but that is me looking back over time and saying don’t do what I did. And, very very often, the world isn’t fair to women in this regards. Re hitching in the USA, I never see any female doing that, except where it’s fairly obvious it’s a woman forced into some criminal activity like prostitution–and in that case the woman (often very young) is a victim. I know, such a downer. Good luck.
Thank you for your information. I am glad that you have told me this. I might be a bit scared but for sure I will watch my back when I am on the road in the future. The trip in Europe went well but yeah, I believe it is safer here than anywhere else.
Cheers