Hey!

Stumbled across this website and had to contribute! 

I hitchhiked from bath to paris with a mate of mine. it was fab. Few points:

1) most people that picked you up had hitchiked in the past

2) virtually everyone said that if it had been two males they wouldnt have picked us up but because we had one female and one male they felt it was safer.

3) one of the best places to hitch lifts is at petrol stations when people are filling up. mainly because they can stop/chat to you etc and it's more convenient to pick you up.

4)because our trip was all for charity we had massive charity t-shirts on so notsure how much that helped...

All in all it was a fab experience, so much fun! would recommend but just becareful and never go with anyone you're not comfortable with!

posted by KATHRYN RENSHAW

hitchhiking is amazing. its so much fun and you can meet some really nice and generous people. i hitched across europe a while ago and ended up sleeping in peoples houses adn being given loads of free meals.

 

there will be times when you don't get a lift for ages and that can get really depressing, especially if its raining and cold, but when you do finally get picked up its awesome.

 

as much fun as it is be sensible, if you dont like the look of the person whose offering you a life, you dont have to take it.

 

such a liberating feeling when you wake up that you don't know where you're going to end up at the end of the day.

 

definately do it, you'll have loads of fun

posted by MATT WOOD 

One sceptic + one hitchhike= Success!

So last Friday I had my first experience of hitchhiking from Southampton to Bournemouth. I have to say I was a bit nervous the week leading up to the hitchhike. The whole idea was a bit scary as you don’t know who you might get in a car with. The only reason I agreed to take part was because it was with someone else. Not only was it the fear that put me off but also I didn’t think people nowadays would be likely to pull over, so the idea of spending hours on a roadside just waiting for someone to pull over didn’t really appeal to me. 
However, I have to say after actually getting out there and doing it my opinion of hitchhiking has changed. I met with my boyfriend’s friend who I was doing it with and we made our way to the A33 where we decided to go from. We stopped on the side of the road and wrote our sign for Bournemouth and were just getting the camera out to film our first thoughts, when a man pulled up and offered us a lift. There went my preconceptions that I’d be standing round for ages on the side of the road. I was so surprised. I honestly didn’t think that nowadays people would stop. That journey took us to the edge of Bournemouth where we considered getting a bus, but the man in the car urged us to hitchhike. So he dropped us off and we made another sign for out final destination Lansdowne. Within 5minutes we were sat in our second lift. The lady was really nice and said that she’d take us to where we were going. 
So that was it, an hour after having set off in Southampton we were at our final destination in Bournemouth. And so after having hitchhiked myself, my attitude has changed.
It was much easier than I thought, both of our drivers were really lovely and they both said they had hitchhiked when they were younger. The thing is, at the end of the day there will always be someone going the same place you are and so why pay for public transport when we can just share lifts. I saved £7 on the train and it didn’t even take that much longer. I wouldn’t do it on my own and obviously its important to make sure your safe, but I would definitely do it again if I had a guy to do it with. When I told my brother how well it went he even suggested that we do it together sometime. So overall I would definitely urge people to give it a try.

posted by AMBER GARLAND

HITCHIKING IS LIVE! Me and my friend hitchiked from manchester to london, mainly for the adventure and the jokes and it was one of my favourite days ever. genuinely such good fun. I think it was easier because we were two girls but we literally did some quick research on hitchwiki.com walked to an A road and set off. Along the way we met some diamond characters. lovely lovely people. it was so nice to meet people, and then get out of their car, unlikely to ever see them again. Everyone thinks it is dangerous but if you pick carefully and don't get fresh with the person driving you its just hilarious. It does take a long time (manchester to london is usually 4 hours, and it took us 10) and you do sometimes have to wait fairly long for lifts (do not get stuck in birmingham) but as long as you are clever with your signs you shouldn't have that many issues. Most lifts only took us 10 minutes to get. Everyone should hitchike somewhere.

Posted by ELAINE CHEW 

Be wise and it's fun

I hitched from north france to spain...met decent people...use your head and if you arent sure its better not...some people coming back from a rave in a van let me sleep in their bed and bought me a pint of milk...be prepared for it to take a while, some people dont wanna talk to you, you might end up out of the way of where you wanna go...generally dont go for old men or people with uber smelly/uber clean cars x ps i guess my view is that if you arent prepared to jump out of the car if their a nut job, then you probably shouldnt do it.

posted by ELLIE HARLOW 

I always hitch when i run out of money, people used to do it all the time. One guy bought me a sandwich at a service station on the way to cornwall which was pretty nice. peace x

Posted by JACK MILLER

Check out their journey through video diaries at http://www.youtube.com/user/UKHitch