11 hot tips for hitchhiking around Europe

Last month saw 400 Sheffield students set off from the Students’ Union on an annual charity hitchhike organised by Bummit, the world’s largest student-run hitchhiking group, and a sub-society of Sheffield RAG. This year’s destination was Split,  so for 11 days Europe was crawling with hundreds of orange-hoodied Sheffield students as they raced to Croatia in time for the after-party.

I was personally a bit sceptical about hitching at first, but having taken part in this year’s trip, I would fully recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap way to see Europe over summer. 11 tips on how to minimise your chances of losing your life, friends or mind during your trip. 

1. Be clean

As you’ll generally have about a 3 second window in which to convince the strangers whizzing past that you probably pose no physical threat and that they should in fact stop and let you in their car, appearance counts for a lot. So smile, don’t have anything chainsaw-shaped poking out of your bag, and be clean (or at least look it). You can smile and wave and stick that thumb out all you like, but you’re really not going to be welcome in anyone’s car if you look as though your presence will require the windows to be wound down. Make sure you look like you’ve showered in the last week. Facial hair isn’t an absolute no-no, though a clean-shaven ‘off to summer camp’ sort of look will probably do you more favours than looking like a Hairy Biker cutting loose.

2. It’s ok to look a bit pathetic

As long as your ‘verge of tears’ look doesn’t come across as a murderous glint, there is nothing wrong with looking a bit sorry for yourself while waiting by the roadside. Even if you’re feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after the best night’s sleep you’ve ever had, the ‘weary yet optimistic traveller’ lookcould well help you secure that vital pity lift.

So forlorn.

Tab Top Tip: This look is particularly effective when in the rain, cold, dark, or preferably all three.

3. Liberally apply the charity card

Write it on banners. Tattoo it across your forehead. Express it through interpretive dance. Do whatever it takes to make everyone you meet aware that you’re hitching FOR CHARITY. If they know it’s for a good cause, people will be much more inclined to help you out, whether it be by giving you a lift, buying you food, making a donation, or letting you sleep in their spare room. If you’re planning on going it alone as opposed to with a hitching organisation such as Bummit, consider doing it for charity of your choice by setting up an online fundraising page before you go. Not only will this mean you’ll raise money for a good cause along the way, but the fact you’re hitching in the name of charity will give you some added credibility and tug at the heartstrings of all the benevolent souls out there.

4. Travel light

This one’s pretty straightforward: you’re unlikely to get a lift if it looks like you’re in the process of moving house, so pack the bare essentials and try to avoid looking like a pack mule.

5. Choose your companions wisely

These are people you will be spending every waking and sleeping moment with, and while you’re on the road you’ll be pretty dependent on one another. It’s thus important that you’re not going to want to kill them two hours into your journey. Just because you get on really well when you go on nights out with the girls next door, it doesn’t mean you won’t want to claw their eyes out after a couple of nights spent with little sleep or access to alcohol, so choose wisely. And make sure at least one of you knows vaguely how to map read.

Cheerful chappy.

6. Prepare to see a LOT of petrol stations

The reality is that you will spend a LOT of time standing (/sitting/in a ball on the floor) in petrol stations, where it’s much easier to hitch lifts than by the side of the road. You will inevitably crave vegetables and learn to hate the sight of Milka and Cheetos. But don’t despair- make the most of what service stations have to offer. Treat yourself to a shower if there is one, and soak up the local culture by sampling unusual European long-life snacks.

Mmm… Pickled Bratwurst…

7. Be creative

If you’re hitching with Bummit, chances are you’ll be competing for every lift against hoards of other enthusiastic, sweet-talking students in bright hoodies. Even if you’re not, you will be vying for every car’s attention and so it’s important to try to keep it original. Try making eye-catching signs, dancing, and dressing up (though avoid anything Hallowe’eny). And try not to use red paint when writing your signs; it tends to look suspiciously like it could be the blood of your latest victim. 

8. Don’t fall asleep

This is a hard one. In a warm, cosy car, when you’ve made up your mind your driver who has a penchant for whale music and their elderly mother in the passenger seat probably isn’t a serial killer, it can be incredibly easy to slip into a slumber. Don’t. Or at least try not to. Or take it in turns with whoever you’re travelling with. Even if it’s safe, waking up to a stranger shaking your knee while you wipe the dribble from your chin and realise you don’t recognise the language in which the signs around you are written is just embarrassing for everyone. 

Your eyelids are getting heavy…

9. Be friendly

If your driver wants to chat at you for 3 hours about their son Paul and his boyfriend Steve’s gap year in China, let them. Don’t hold back on the gratitude; Make them aware that they are your salvation and you will be eternally indebted to them. Add them on Facebook. Let them know they’ll always have a place to stay if ever they’re in England (you probably won’t be held to it). 

10. Don’t be afraid to say no!

The majority of people out there aren’t interested in chopping you up and putting you in their boot. However, there is probably an incredibly small minority who are so it’s important to remember you don’t need to take every lift you’re offered. If someone pulls up and they look like they might be drunk or have a body bag on the parcel shelf, just politely let them know they’re going the wrong way for you and keep trying. 

11. Enjoy the ride…

Try to keep an open mind and not think in terms of all the potential Instagram opportunities by the Eiffel tower and under the Brandenburg gate. Even if you’ve meticulously planned a route for your journey, chances are that at some point you’ll find yourself in the service station equivalent of purgatory late at night, and will accept a lift somewhere completely off-route out of sheer desperation. But whatever you do and wherever you end up, you will come back with bizarre stories and great memories. And at the end of the day, even if you have a few dodgy experiences, you’re travelling for free!