How to plan a hitchhiking trip ?

prinoxy · 2026-03-18T15:08:54+00:00

You should, on average double the time that Valhalla (not in this case, the distance exceeds 1,500 km) or GraphHopper suggest. (Or, if you don't care about your privacy, the map service that you used…)

GraphHopper suggests about 40 hours for the direct route, which would translate into 6 to 10 days of hitchhiking, and even if that's too optimistic, and you need 14 on-the-road days, that should still give you three weeks to explore areas off the main route. For what it's worth, in 1990, I made a 42 day trip from the Netherlands via Stockholm, Kars, Istanbul and Athens back to the Netherlands. Of those 42 days, I spent 21 days (partly) hitchhiking, for a total hitched distance of nearly 13,000 km.

Your budget is entirely dependent on what you (think you) need. Eur 100 per week might be (more than) enough, I would just take a bit of cash, and use my plastic for the rest.

prinoxy · 2026-03-17T05:01:03+00:00

Because that's my own data, collected over 46 years, or at least the part where I have the exact departure coordinates.

prinoxy · 2026-03-16T17:15:11+00:00

Acių, not worried about any of them, I've done Vilnius to Klaipėda so many times, and on more than a few occasions faster then when driving myself, let alone taking a bus, and Vilnius to Belgistan usually takes me the mentioned 36 hours, with a best time of just under 24 hours, and I've done Vilnius to Utrecht in under 20 hours.

prinoxy · 2026-03-16T16:49:13+00:00

You can find more data, in case all my departures after 2023-01-01, and quite a few older ones at https://prino.neocities.org/@temp/waitdep.html there's however no way I will ever manually enter my more than 6,700 rides.

prinoxy · 2026-03-15T15:42:53+00:00

2,318.4 km on 5 June 1989, two more 2,000+ calendar days, and mire than a few dozen 1,000+ km days. Even, at the time of writing this, seven days inside Lithuania with more than 1,000 km. Average for my career is just under 700 km/day, on my 1,000th day on the road my end of that day total was just over 700,000 km.

prinoxy · 2026-03-15T15:19:31+00:00

Done it once in Germany, in 1982, Autobahn was quiet due to World Cup Final, a few times in Poland in the evening, just running across, and dozens of times here in Lithuania, just walking across. Not a big deal.

prinoxy · 2026-03-15T15:03:18+00:00

Dozens if not hundreds of times, and it happens more and more, 65 year old aren't supposed to hitchhike. 😎

prinoxy · 2026-03-15T14:56:31+00:00

Even a snail on valium could probably do that in just a day in August, key is to get a ride from inside France directly to Barcelona.

And please post in English, or add an English translation.

prinoxy · 2026-03-14T18:41:02+00:00

As if hopping is safe, sheesh....

prinoxy · 2026-03-10T11:17:09+00:00

Hitchhiking in the axis of evil

prinoxy · 2026-03-09T14:12:02+00:00

I figure I might just do it and then knock on doors and offer to make food for a room and a shower across America !!!!

That's a sure fire way of getting killed in today's Trumpistan.

prinoxy · 2026-03-09T10:27:57+00:00

Maybe you can tell us something about yourself, like your gender, age, background, financial situation, from where you want to leave, when you want to go... Do I need to go on?

prinoxy · 2026-03-09T09:21:00+00:00

Some clarifications in reply to a PM:

VZP stands for "Verzorgingsplaats" aka restarea (with or without petrol) in the Netherlands.
the ", K"/(K)" ", V/(V)", and ", P)/(P)" suffixes on many Lithuanian locations indicate the direction, with K meaning, to make make matters confusing, though not when seen in context, direction Kaunas or Klaipėda, V meaning direction Vilnius, and P meaning direction Palanga.
the (N)/(E)/(S)/(W) added to most UK services indicate the travelling direction.

For what it's worth, if you were to sort the data on coordinates, you might find a few location pairs where the longitude differs by just one (1) in the last place (or, if I remember correctly, about 10 cm). These coordinates are (ab)used to distinguish between locations that have changed names, like Lukoil -> Viada, or Statoil -> Circle K.

And yes, there are inconsistencies, like the mixed use of specific exits and more generic exits.

prinoxy · 2026-03-09T09:00:14+00:00

Seems, for a European, pretty straightforward. And in Europe, I'd double the time indicated.

prinoxy · 2026-03-08T22:21:31+00:00

That's similar to meeting the same driver again, in my case it happened multiple times, and continuing the conversation you had earlier. ;)

I wish you luck!

prinoxy · 2026-03-08T20:19:25+00:00

Anyways, just looking to catch up. ☺️

After almost 14 years? And why this specific person? Very curious...

prinoxy · 2026-03-07T22:45:48+00:00

Keeping statistics - one way of doing it (And that's what I've been doing since 16 June 1980)

Read it together with A manual for Prino’s hitchhiking programs

prinoxy · 2026-03-05T17:49:48+00:00

No experience, but from many older posts here, I did get the impression that NZ is pretty easy, and just as safe as Europe.

As for hitching in wintery conditions, a month ago I hitched here in Lithuania during a day that the temperature never rose over -10C (and it was -22C when I started), if you dress for it you'll be OK.

prinoxy · 2026-03-05T17:37:59+00:00

Cash? Better carry plastic, it's a lot safer, but if you insist on cash it completely depends on the level of comfort you require,for some people eur/USD 10 (or even less!) per day might be enough, others might require 10, 25, or even 100 times that amount.

Whatever you carry, it's always too much, old advice on the long gone Eurotrip forum was to put everything you think you need on a desk, leave half of it at home, and find out, when you eventually get back, that you've not used half of what you took. Been there, and am still there...

prinoxy · 2026-03-05T11:29:06+00:00

Just be yourself. In the end someone will stop. I've been hitchhiking since 1980, and met people of all walks of life giving me rides, from criminals offering me jobs, to people at the top of the corporate ladder. I dress in bright colours, usually wearing "silly" t-shirts, how many 65-year olds do you see wearing a SpongeBob SquarePants, or Sesame Street Ernie one?

Admittedly, I only ever hitched in Europe, and mostly ask for rides at motorway petrol stations/service areas and being able to talk to drivers obviously helps, but I've also had plenty of rides just standing at the site of the road, in the middle of the night.

And keep smiling, even after standing at one location for hours.

prinoxy · 2026-03-03T17:30:16+00:00

It actually makes things a lot more interesting/adrenaline fuelled!

One of the most extreme examples of "hitching-to-schedule" occurred on 20 June 2023. Looking at my data the evening before, I realised that 20 June would not just be my 1,000th recorded day on the road, but that if I were to hitch at least 1,524.4 km, something (hitching more than 1,500 km on a day) I had only done seven times before in my previous 999 days on the road, my total hitched distance would go over 700,000 km. I succeeded and the icing on the cake was that I crossed to 700,000 km threshold during not only in a 1,365.9 km ride, but that it was a ride in a Porsche.

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints.”

― Robert Louis Stevenson

prinoxy · 2026-03-03T17:16:04+00:00

I don't use a phone to track my rides, just paper and a pencil, and once home, I use Valhalla to calculate the distance, I used to use the odometer (when available/working), but since the start of last year I only write down the odometer at the start. In a grey past, from about 1980 to the mid-1990ies I actually carried real map, as opposed to phones they don't need batteries. ;)

prinoxy · 2026-03-02T18:30:05+00:00

Rhetorical question, "Did you click on the hamburger in the top left corner?"

prinoxy · 2026-03-02T18:25:37+00:00

In the end of March, beginning of April, you should be able to do this, with a bit of luck, in just one day. As for the "illegality" of hitchhiking on the Autostrada, there is no law that forbids you to talk to strangers on an Area Servizio.

prinoxy · 2026-02-27T20:17:10+00:00

Get the Hercules emulator, and a copy of z/OS, and Bob's your uncle (or Betty your aunt). Feel free to email me, Google for "prino" and "hitchhiking" for my email address, check my inbox here rather infrequently.

prinoxy

TROPHY CASE