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You are here: Home / Affording Travel Interview / Affording Travel Interview With Ania and Jon: Hitchhiking — It’s Safer Than You Think!

Affording Travel Interview With Ania and Jon: Hitchhiking — It’s Safer Than You Think!

December 13, 2013 by Deia 19 Comments

hitchhiking-basics-safetyYou’ve seen it at least once on TV and have heard more than one horror story about it. It has a bad reputation, so despite it being a free way to travel, you might have reservations about doing it yourself. After all, the hitchhikers in the movies almost always end up dead or something.

oldest-free-travelI’m one of the many people who have been too chicken to try hitchhiking.

My interviewees today, though, have hitchhiked all over the world for years and they’re still in one piece. In fact, they say the only danger they’ve ever encountered was irresponsible drivers. And who hasn’t been driven around by one of those? Sometimes I even pay a bad driver for his services.

 

So without further ado…

Meet the Hitchhikers: Ania and Jon of Hitchhikers’ Handbook

hitchhiking-spain
Jon, Ania and a driver in Spain.

 

How long have you been hitchhiking?

We first started hitchhiking in Malaysia during our South-East Asia trip, encouraged by Ang, a great Couchsurfing and Hitchhiking personality. It was in 2009 and we have always traveled by thumb ever since.

 

Where have you hitchhiked so far? Any places that are particularly easy or particularly hard to hitchhike in?

During our hitchhiking career, we have thumbed South-East Asia, the Caucasus region, Turkey and many European countries.

The easiest places to hitchhike (in terms of people’s friendliness, not the roads) were Georgia, Armenia, Turkey, Laos, Malaysia and Thailand. Poland, where Ania is from, is not a bad place to hitchhike either. In places like Georgia, Armenia and Turkey, rides catch themselves; you don’t even have to wait 10 minutes and on top of that you are very likely to get invited for a drink or dinner.

hitchhiking-georgia

So far, the most difficult place has proved to be Portugal and Greece. It’s not common for the Portuguese or Greeks to stop their cars for a stranger and the extensive network of motorways doesn’t help either.

 

Accommodation and transport are two of the most expensive costs of travel. How much do you spend on full-time travel by combining hitchhiking and Couchsurfing?

It depends on the country. In Western Europe, you are bound to pay more for food, but on the other hand you are also more likely to find a Couchsurfing host than in Asia, for instance. To make the calculations simple, let’s say that if you hitchhike and Couchsurf, you can comfortably travel in Western Europe for 14-20€ a day, in the Caucasus for 10-12€ a day and in Southeast Asia for 12€ a day (including flights and three hot meals a day).

 

Okay, silly question but I have to ask: do hitch-hikers actually stick their thumbs up to get a ride?

That also depends on the country and local customs. While sticking your thumb out is the most common way to get a ride, in many countries people would understand a thumb up gesture as “OK”, “cool” or “have a nice day”. In some parts of the world, you would need to wave your outstretched hand with your palm facing the ground or simply point to the ground with your index finger.

hitchhiking-thumb

 

How long do you usually have to wait until a driver picks you up? What’s the longest time you’ve ever had to wait?

The usual waiting time can be anything between 5 and 40 minutes. If it’s longer than 90 minutes, we usually start to think of plan B and we move to another spot. In places like Portugal or Andalusia in Spain, you have to be prepared to wait a long time and often in blazing heat. Once in Portugal, we only covered 30 km in 7 hours! Walking would have been quicker. :)

 

Have you ever not been able to get a ride and given up?

It sometimes happens that you have arranged to meet your Couchsurfing host, so getting to your destination on the assigned day is important. In these situations, if we see that it’s getting dark and we are not going anywhere fast, we tend to look for a train or a bus. If there is no public transport around, we look for a secluded place to pitch our tent and camp in the wild for one night.

 

How slowly do you travel?

We don’t like to rush while traveling. We prefer to linger in a place a bit longer, learn about its customs, taste some local food and try to pick up the local language as much as possible. Hitchhiking every day is very tiring, so we usually stay two or three nights in a place and then get back on the road. In this pace, we were able to see the Caucasus + Turkey, Spain + Portugal and the majority of the Balkan Peninsula in three two-month-long trips. To cover the entire Southeast Asia, you’d probably need just over three months.

 

Couchsurfers often buy gifts for the host. Is it customary for hitchhikers to give presents to the driver?

In hitchhikers’ culture that customary gift would be a postcard, as it’s small and light to carry, and you can write a nice message for your driver. We tend to print postcards with our route on them in advance, which help both to break the first ice as well as explain where we are going, especially if we don’t speak the driver’s language.

hitchhiking-turkey
A Turkish driver who didn’t speak English. Ania and Jon used smiles and gestures to communicate with him.

 

What are some other benefits of hitch-hiking, other than the free transport?

There are plenty of benefits and free transport is not the most important one.

First of all, hitchhiking allows you to get to know the country much better than if you train-hop it. You are with the locals for the majority of your time and are often invited to their houses. You can learn some of the local language, culture and see places no guidebooks mention.

hitchhiking-turkey-dinner-invite
Invited to dinner in Turkey.

Besides, it’s just so much easier and more fun to go and stand on the edge of the road, rather than going to a train/bus station, working out how to get tickets, then waiting for a couple of hours just to see the country through a train window.

And finally, if you hitchhike you will soon notice that people are good. As cliché as it may sound, hitchhiking restores your faith in humanity. :) During our trips, we’ve met so many wonderful and helpful people who often went out off their way just to help us. Some people who gave us a ride didn’t even open their mouths once during the whole journey, but stopped for us just out of the sheer desire to help a stranger. And that’s beautiful!

travel-and-the-kindness-of-strangers

What’s the most unexpected thing that has happened to you as hitchhikers?

The most unexpected situation was probably a time when we got picked up by a man in Turkey who drove us to a forest and suggested that we have sex in front of him. We refused and he drove off, leaving us there. At no point did we feel intimidated. He was just a messed up guy, a chancer who was trying his luck. At the time we felt a bit uneasy, but in retrospect it’s a funny story to tell.

 

What’s the most remote place you’ve ended up in?

Once we got stuck at an unofficial border crossing between Laos and Cambodia. There was absolutely no traffic for hours, it was during the rainy season so we couldn’t camp and the worst thing was that the only people there were mercenary taxi drivers who were lurking for people like us who got stuck just to demand an extortionate amount of money to be driven 50 km to the nearest settlement.

 

What are the most common mistakes newbie hitch-hikers make? Got some hitchhiking tips?

The most common mistake is choosing the wrong spot and that can happen to both newbie and experienced hitchhikers. If you stand in the wrong place — where there is no traffic or drivers have no way to pull over — nobody will pick you up. It’s important to stand at the edge of the city (because it’s almost impossible to get a ride within a city) on the most frequented road in a visible place where drivers can easily stop.

Planning is the key. Before you set off in the morning, you should check HitchWiki.org (an excellent website with description of spots to choose from) and, if that fails, try to find your ideal spot with Google Maps. The next step is to work out how to get there using public transport and then just wait, look friendly, smile and have a positive attitude.

 

What are the most common hitchhking dangers? How do you avoid them?

Hitchhiking is not really as perilous as it may seem. We’ve never had a dangerous situation, but of course it does you no harm to be careful and use your common sense. Things you should most avoid doing are: hitchhiking after dark (just because you might get hit by a car), showing off your valuable electronic possessions (a Polish proverb says ‘opportunity makes the thief’; there is probably some truth in it) and getting into a car with a drunken driver.

 

People (mostly those who have never done it themselves) think hitchhiking is really dangerous, but you’ve obviously had a great time doing it. What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you in all your years of hitchhiking?

The only times we really felt scared were moments when on narrow, winding mountainous roads, our drivers were daringly going at full speed and overtaking other cars, or when we noticed our drivers where falling asleep while driving. That’s the only real danger of hitchhiking — getting in cars with irresponsible drivers.

Hitchhiking in Turkey
A driver who picked up Ania and Jon in Turkey.

 

Anything else to add?

We strongly encourage everyone to try hitchhiking; it’s interesting, fun and money-saving. Happy travels to everyone!

 

(End of interview)

If you want to find out more about hitchhiking, you can find Ania and Jon at Hitchhikers’ Handbook. You can also connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

Also, as a reader points out on Twitter (shout out to Roberta Westwood @citytravelbug), this post wouldn’t be complete without some safety tips. After all, some of those hitchhiking horror stories must have really happened. Ania and Jon has a great post about what to do when things go wrong.

Images: 1, 3-7, 9. Ania and Jon of the Hitchhikers’ Handbook; 2. (Free License); 8. Sarah Reid (CC BY 2.0 License).

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Comments

  1. HoboSpirit says

    February 16, 2015 at 4:05 PM

    What a great post and I can relate to most of it, I love hitchhiking (although I came close to being arrested once).
    When I got out of a car the drivers wallet fell out with me (it was on the back seat under my bags and I got into some trouble. It happened in Turkey too.

    Reply
    • Deia says

      February 19, 2015 at 4:17 AM

      At least they make great stories, right? ;)

      Reply
  2. David says

    December 21, 2013 at 1:28 PM

    Great Article!
    I have hitchhiked and I have given rides to hitchhikers on countless occasions in the past. Tho’ not so much recently.
    I have said many times that hitchhiking restores my faith in humanity. Fearless sharing. It is a wonderful thing. The opportunity to meet locals and fellow travellers alike is worth much more to me than cost of admission. The places I have ended up on the kindness of strangers! A beer garden in Germany. Wildcrafting in Quebec. A Hot Spring in New Mexico. And the incredible people who shared – only for the sake of sharing.
    I feel kinda sad for those who, deep down, really want to, but let fear be their guide.
    D :)

    Reply
    • Deia B says

      December 21, 2013 at 1:38 PM

      Thanks, David! Now I have to try hitchhiking. I wouldn’t want you to be sad on my account. ;)

      Reply
  3. Agness says

    December 17, 2013 at 10:02 PM

    I’m a blonde girl and I don’t think hitchhiking would be a great idea for me. I prefer local buses :):)

    Reply
    • Deia says

      December 18, 2013 at 3:47 AM

      Yeah, even within the hitchhiker community there’s disagreement about whether women should hitchhike solo. Hitchhikers’ Handbook has a good discussion here: http://hitchhikershandbook.com/2013/10/01/solo-female-hitchhikers-good-or-bad/

      Reply
  4. eemusings says

    December 14, 2013 at 8:08 PM

    We’ve picked up a couple hitchhikers but never been the hitchers ourselves. Couple reasons: the one area where we would’ve done it (western Europe) we had a somewhat tight timeframe to stick to, so didn’t want to risk that (STRESSS) and more pertinently, my husband is patently NOT the kind of guy most people would stop on the road for. He’s kind of a rough giant type and cuts a profile that probably looks threatening to most strangers, unfortunately. One of our European hosts who kept banging on to us about the joys of hitchhiking did a double take when he finally met us in person and was like, yeah, maybe it wouldn’t have worked for you guys. (Also yikes, I didn’t even think about waiting on roadsides in the blazing heat – that would have been unbearable!)

    Reply
    • Deia says

      December 14, 2013 at 8:39 PM

      Lol that first meeting with the host must’ve been hilarious! I’m usually relaxed about itinerary once we get to the destination, but I generally want both transport and accommodation to be sorted out beforehand, so I totally understand the thing about timeframes and stress. If I were to hitchhike, I would have to deliberately schedule some allowance for transport, as Type A as that might seem. Also I’d wait for a pleasant 20C sunny day. I don’t think I’d make a very good hitchhiker. :D

      Reply
    • Arty Om says

      December 15, 2013 at 2:42 AM

      heat is ok))) Cold is something you’d not want to deal with. Say, if you hitchhike in SIberia :D

      Reply
      • Deia says

        December 15, 2013 at 12:48 PM

        With so much of the tropical and temperate regions I haven’t explored, it’s highly unlikely that I’d ever find myself hitchhiking in Siberia. :D

        Reply
        • Arty Om says

          December 15, 2013 at 1:57 PM

          LOL :D
          Well, in summers Siberia gets pretty hot :)

          Reply
          • Deia says

            December 15, 2013 at 9:21 PM

            Hmm okay, maybe then and only then. :D

  5. Arty Om says

    December 14, 2013 at 11:46 AM

    >>hitchhiking restores your faith in humanity

    hard to disagree :)

    Reply
    • Deia says

      December 14, 2013 at 7:53 PM

      Good to see another hitchhiker’s feedback! :)

      Reply
  6. Samantha says

    December 14, 2013 at 10:47 AM

    This is such a great interview! It’s so interesting to hear thoughts of hitchhiking from experienced and seasoned hitchhikers especially since it does have a bad reputation. I guess it depends on what part of the world you are in but it sounds like quite an adventure and plus it’s such a great way to meet local people and get introduced to their culture. Awesome story!

    Reply
    • Deia says

      December 14, 2013 at 7:51 PM

      I agree. I might never use it as my main mode of transport because it seems exhausting, but I’m intrigued to try it at least once or twice now. Who knows? That one trip might turn me into a convert. :D

      Reply
  7. Hitch-Hikers Handbook says

    December 13, 2013 at 3:18 PM

    Thank you, Deia, for this great opportunity you have given us! We hope that this interview will encourage some people to hitchhike and some others to pick up ;) Hitchhiking is a wonderful way to travel and with a bit of common sense you will be safe!
    Have a nice weekend, everyone!

    Reply
    • Deia says

      December 14, 2013 at 6:03 AM

      Thanks for sharing your story, guys! :)

      Reply

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  1. Our interview for NomadWallet.com | Hitch-Hikers Handbook says:
    December 14, 2013 at 9:29 AM

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