Ask Lemmy

I've hitchhiked from Finland to China and onwards to India.
And then of course shorter trips, such as many trips between Finland and Spain. Etc.
Absolutely the best way to travel anywhere!

Absolutely the best way to travel! There's a community for hitchhikers in the Forumverse, BTW: !hitchhiking@anarchist.nexus .

I've personally only hitchhiked twice.

The first time isn't all that interesting. I was camping with my parents as a teen. I was a smoker at the time and had ran out of cigarettes. My parents didn't know about (or were deliberately ignoring) my habit. The closest place that sold smokes was about a two hour hike away. So I told everyone at camp I was going for a hike and hoofed my way there. I managed to finangle a couple packs of cigarettes, but was at a loss - I knew I was going to be in shit if I just disappeared and returned four hours later. I decided to try my luck and stuck my thumb out. After about 15 minutes, I got picked up by some guy in a pick-up, pretty chill. Got dropped off at my camp with no one the wiser.

Again, not interesting in itself, but was a "Whoa, some people actually do pick up hitchhikers these days" learning moment.

Second story is only slightly more interesting:
Still a teen (about 16-17 I think?) living in Victoria, BC. A friend who had moved to the mainland had come back to visit. One evening, I asked "Hey, have you ever been to Saltspring Island?" He said no, and it was decided among our crew that this would change the next morning, since none of us had visited.

Saltspring is one of the southern gulf islands off the coast of Vancouver Island, about a half-hour ferry ride from Victoria. Naturally, as my mother would be quite concerned that her son was going on an ocean voyage, I spared her the worry and simply didn't tell her. Three of my friends and I got on the first ferry of the day and made it to Fulford Harbour.

Now, Saltspring didn't have a bus service, and while there is a taxi company it's pretty expensive. So as my friends were starting to worry about how we were going to get anywhere interesting, I stuck my thumb out. My visiting friend stared at me like I was insane.

"You have to be joking."
"Dude, just trust me on this one."
"No one in their right mind is going to pick up four random guys."

A couple minutes after he said this, a sedan pulled over. Suddenly, all of us were crammed in with this delightful seventy year old woman, telling us about the local artisan she was visiting and the sizeable artistic community on Saltspring. She dropped us off in Ganges, the main town on the island. We spent the rest of the day puttering around, smoking terrible green pressed hash we bought off some kid there (who took us on a small tour that ended at a glass shop for a pipe, disappearing by the time we made our purchase), and generally having a pretty chill time.

Eventually, it was time to go. We struck up some discussions with folks in a parking lot near the edge of town. There was a guy with a passenger van that seemed promising, but unfortunately he already had some hitchhikers and couldn't take us. There was another couple who was willing to take us, but only had room for two passengers. After some debate, we split up and left the other two to finangle their own ride.

Originally, the couple said they would drop us off at the ferry terminal, but after a little while they changed their mind and dropped us off in front of a yoga retreat. We were there for about an hour and a half.

Now I was starting to get worried. If we didn't make it to the ferry by the last trip, we were capital 'F' fucked. None of our parents knew where we were, we had no place to stay, we had no idea how the other guys were faring, etc. Finally, a passenger van stops. It's the same guy from before, only now with more room and the other two guys in tow. Apparently, they'd talked to him again, and came to some arrangement where he'd come back and get them. Everyone involved was pretty relieved.

So we made it back to the harbour, got on thr boat, returned to Victoria and made our respective ways home. My mom greeted me with the following:
"DID YOU GO TO SALTSPRING ISLAND?!"
"What? No! Why would I go to Saltspring Island?"
"I didn't know where you were, so I called [friend who didn't come with us] and he said he thought you and your other friends were going to Saltspring!"
"What? All four of us going to an island 30 minutes into the ocean, with little money and no car? That's crazy, who would do that?"

I don't think I've ever fessed up to my mom to this day.

Have not hitchhiked, but have picked up a few hitchhikers. If you spend enough time in the mountains you'll eventually bump into people who need a lift to a trailhead or back to town. One young guy was juggling part-time gigs at multiple lodges and guide services, and hadn't saved enough for a car yet. Another couple was touring from eastern Europe and decided to try traveling around the US without a car. They were all nice people.

Used to hitchhike all over south west Scotland when I was a kid.

No real drama or stories except the one time three of us were hitching and the car that pulled over was being driven by a guy who was a locally known ‘kiddy feeler’.

Two of us hopped over a dry stane dyke, leaving just one kid to get a lift with him. Nothing happened to him, but in retrospect it was a shitty move on our part.

I hitchhiked a fair amount in Ontario, Quebec and Michigan in the 90's.

Loads of fun. Nothing bad ever happened, but some fun stories and close calls on the US side.

Not purposefully but I've been lost before hiking and someone on the road offer to drive me back to my car a few times.

I once picked up some hitchhikers near Saint Louis. They needed help getting to Colorado where apparently their brother had started having some success panning for gold.

I hitchhiked through Ireland about eleven years ago. It's not that easy to catch a lift in some parts, but I met a lot of lovely people during this little adventure.