Hitchhiking is an opportunity to see the world
So, you have decided to go abroad by hitchhiking, rather than doing like most tourists who prefer to vacation only in comfortable conditions. Such people buy tours, call taxis, and head to the most popular places on the planet. If you do not want to do like everyone else and have firmly decided to travel by hitchhiking, you need to follow some rules.
First of all, your desire and enthusiasm come first when planning such a trip. Money is not that important – mainly for this reason many tourists travel by hitchhiking, because you can tour half of Europe with 300 euros in your pocket, or even less. A big advantage of hitchhiking is that drivers almost never take money from hitchhikers. While hitchhiking, you can even earn some money by playing guitar or other instruments you bring along. To save money, keep in touch with home using free terminals in supermarkets and computers in public libraries.
Overall, it is quite difficult to calculate how much money you will need. Therefore, we advise you to take everything you have. Well, during the trip, rely on your ability to save and on luck. Do not forget to take any plastic card with you, because at the border customs officers like to nitpick that you do not have enough money. With a card, you can easily get around them.
Another problem you may face is accommodation (after all, you will not sleep in the driver's cab). In warm weather, it is quite tolerable to spend the night in various parks, the main thing is to take sleeping bags. But with the onset of cold weather, everything becomes more complicated, but there is an excellent way out of this situation. All over the world, there are many communities for the same hitchhiking enthusiasts as you. Just join one of them, and you will learn about people who are ready to simply shelter a traveler at their home. However, while hitchhiking, it is difficult to predict which city you will end up in.
Another problem is hygiene. But Europe is Europe, and almost every gas station has a toilet with hot water, soap, and towels. Some toilets even have a shower, so washing up and stocking up on drinking water in Europe is not that difficult.
If you compare countries, Germany has the best hitchhiking. Therefore, if you decide to travel this way in Europe, you can buy a train ticket to Germany and start your journey from there. The worst hitchhiking, according to hitchhikers themselves, is in Spain. Local drivers almost always ignore people thumbing for a ride.
I would also like to note what you should do before the trip. First of all, learn some English – as practice shows, knowledge of other languages is hardly needed. As a last resort, you can communicate with maps or gestures. Traveling alone gives you a much better chance of getting a ride, but it is much more comfortable and safer to set off with a partner.
Remember, hitchhiking is not just a way to travel around the world for free. It is, above all, a special worldview that not everyone can understand and feel.