Hitchhiker

Within a few minutes I found a friendly trucker who took me a good 1,5 h to a gas station on the highway. The spot is a bit weird because basically all the traffic on the road is leaving the highway. So you only really have a chance with people coming out of the gas station.

I got lucky enough to have one of the rare moments when you leave one car and directly enter the next. I literally just held up my sign saying "RO" (for Romania), and the first person took me to Bucharest.

Solid spot as there are lots of tourists going back to Athens from their daytrips to Delphi. I ended up finding a ride with an Albanian living in Greece who was going to Athens to visit his mother in the hospital in Athens.

I decided to walk down this road through the olive groves to get to the next intersection to Delphi (in the hopes of finding more traffic there). I didn't end up needing to go all the way as a Greek man decided to stop for me on his way home. He took me to Arachova where I had a brief and random encounter with the Italians who took me on the day before. On the way, he was kind enough to make some sight-seeing pitstops in Delphi, so I can at least look at the sights from a distance.

I waited a good 45 minutes here until finally I found a ride to the intersection to Delphi after Itea with an American father and son who live in Greece.

This spot, and actually the whole road, is super exhausting to hitchhike. There is almost no traffic (even in the mornings when you would usually find some tourists), and many people are staying in town. After an hour or so of waiting, I finally found a kind woman who showed me around in Galaxidi (worth a visit!) and dropped me off at the exit of that town.

I tried this spot for two hours on a Wednesday night but didn't succeed in finding a ride. Next to no traffic at all, and the few drivers who saw me didn't seem to enthusiastic about seeing a hitchhiker (perhaps especially in the evening). I tried the spot again the next day and succeeded then, but that night I just surrendered and got an airbnb.

Probably as good a spot as any on this road. But the road has next to no traffic at all in the evening. If you want to hitchhike here, good luck! Eventually, I found a ride with an Albanian father and son to the next town where I gave up and happily collapsed in my airbnb for the night after some super intense and slow hitchhiking days.

Did not find a ride here and moved closer to the highway after 2h of waiting. I think you an definitely find a ride here during the season when there are more tourists on the streets. But perhaps the spot under the bridge to the south is your best shot of getting out of this town.

Being here early in the day is definitely a very good idea! That way you can catch tourists checking out of their accommodations in Parga/Lichnos/Igoumenitsa who might go some distance. The locals mostly go between two cities and are very reluctant to take people. I ended up finding possibly my best ever ride here with a young Italian couple who were travelling with their camper van, freecamping where ever they go. They were going in my direction (Patras) but were planning to do some sightseeing on the way. They kindly took me with them to look at the archeological site of Nicopolis (amazing stuff!). While driving it turned out that they would continue to Delphi the next day and that I could free camp with them. We spent an amazing night filled with music, swimming, great conversation and a camp fire at a secret beach on the coast. Although we got stuck with the van on way back up the bad path for three hours, I had the best time with them. We just clicked on every level and this is exactly what I hitchhike for! Because of the situation with the van, we didn't end up reaching Dephi that day, and they instead decided to stay on the coast for another night. Unfortunately their next freecamping spot wasn't so suitable for my tent and I had too book accommodation for a night in the next town.

I spent the night at the camping in Lichnos, and wanted to get to the intersection with the bigger road in the morning. After 15 minutes of trying I found a ride with two tourists in their campervan. I think it's good to be here in the morning to catch the people leaving their accommodation in Parga/Lichnos as they can sometimes go far. I could've gotten close to Thessaloniki with them, but I wanted to go more in the direction of Patras / Athens and had them drop me off at the intersection with the main road.

I waited for 60 minutes here until finally a woman and her mother picked me up. They only had to go to the next city but were super kind and drove me to Lichnos. There is a camping there where I spent the night,

After 30 min a local stopped and offered to take me to the next city. Because I had already spent 2 hours waiting at another spot, I just wanted to get out of Igoumenitsa. But I probably could've (and maybe should've) waited for a longer distance ride.

Good spot to get into Agios Gordios, where I was staying in a hostel (Pink Palace). Got picked up quickly by a woman working there.

I took my own advice and moved to the exit of the town and quickly got picked up there by an older Greek guy who spoke almost no English.

Did not find a ride here even though the spot itself looks okay. I think most people are not going very far (just into the town). I ended up walking to the exit of the village. There were far less cars in my direction, but I quickly found a ride from there.

Stood here with my thumb out to get to the other coast of the island. Found a 15 minute ride within 30 minutes.

I had some competition here because the bus to Gjirokastër also goes by the spot. If you're somewhat familiar with Albanian busses: They stop pretty much anywhere (even on the highway) if they see a new passenger waiting. Two of the other people there were also open to hitchhike and when a van pulled over, three of us got a ride with them. Lucky for me, because my only way to communicate with our lovely Albanian drivers, was through the older couple who spontaneously hitchhiked with me. They were able to translate my shitty Italian into Albanian. Either way, they were going to Thessaloniki, so I could have gone much further with them.

Great spot, waited only a few minutes for a British and French couple to pick me up. They drove me further my direction to the big roundabout after Fier. Thumb was enough :)

Got picked up super quickly by a father and son on vacations. Thumb should be enough here, as even just getting to the next big intersection helps a lot. I got lucky and they turned where I was heading, direction Lushnjë

Waited 10 minutes until I got picked up by an Albanian business owner in a fancy BMW. Super nice guy, drove me just around 45 minutes until our ways parted. I think you don't need a sign here, good old thumb did the trick.

After 15 minutes someone came by on foot with a plastic water bottle filled with Rakja and offered me a shot, and 15 minutes after that somebody stopped and brought me to Shkodër. Good spot over all. I left slightly more drunk than I anticipated.

Waited for a long time here but eventually somebody picked me up and brought me to Ulcinj. The spot itself is good though, and the trees offer some shade.

The spot is not so easy to get to on foot (I had my host drive me there). It looks like there is a path up there from Petrovac if you look on satellite view, but I don't know if you maybe need a key when you get up there, as the path probably belongs more or less to the hotel. Cars are not to fast and they have a good amount of space to stop in the driveway of the hotel. I got picked up by an Ukrainian cupple within a few minutes.

Waited a few minutes for a few friendly construction workers to pick me up. They spoke great English and drove me directly to my accommodation.

Got picked up quickly by a Belgian lady living in Sutomore who drove me there. I had missed the bus I wanted to take and decided to hitchhike to my accommodation instead of waiting 2 hours for the next one.

A very crazy driver picked me up here for a beautiful but frightening ride into the sunset to my destination for the day, Petrovac. I was happy to leave the car. The guy was nice, but waay to fast and looking at his phone constantly.

Got picked up here within 30 or so minutes by a guy who drove me to Sutomore. We had a slight miscommunication as I wanted him to drop me off in Virpazar (to get to Petrovac). But Sutomore ended up being a good spot as well to get to Petrovac, so not really complaining.

Waited for a while here on my way to Petrovac after accidentally adding an hour to my journey by taking the wrong bus and having to wait for almost 45 minutes for the correct one. Eventually somebody stopped and drove me a bit down the road to a better spot.

Within 5 minutes, two Polish people picked us up in a rental car and brought us to Podgorica.

Because the earlier spot on the hard shoulder merging two roads was occupied by a couple of local hitchhikers, we tried our luck a bit down the road by the graveyard. There's plenty of space to pull over and people see you early enough to slow down. We "got lucky" because some people came here from Nikšic to commemorate a lost family member. They saw us when they pulled up, we gretted them and they didn't greet back. So we were thinking they want to be left alone due to their griefing. However, without us even signaling to them, they offered to bring us to Nikšic.

Due to low traffic in the morning, we waited a good 40 minutes here after crossing the border on foot. An orthodox monk and his friend picked us up and drove us on the beautiful road to Pluzine. They also stopped a number of times on the road with the words "One minute break!" to allow us to enjoy the nature and stunning views, and to take some pics. But they did mean it with the one minute. Get out, view, get in, go go go go! This trip also marks the second time a faithful person nearly got me hurt on accident, as he started diving when was only half sitting in the car, with the door still open.

As a good a spot as any of you're trying to get into Montenegro. A kind rafting camp worker brought us from here to the border even though it was out of his way and saved us a one hour walk.

We waited a good 2 hours at this spot close to sunset. To get there, walk up the road towards Montenegro until you reach the spot where you're overlooking the sports court of the village. Like others have mentioned, there is not a lot of traffic before the season starts. There was maybe one car every 5-10 minutes. Which just speaks to how little traffic there is to Montenegro from Bosnia on this road. 2 minutes before giving up, a rafting camp owner picked us up and drove us to his camp down the road. He kindly offered to host me and my companion in one of the chalets in the camp and we got an experience we didn't plan, yet greatly enjoyed. The nature around the camp is just breathtakingly beautiful. No photo could ever capture it! So in the end, while the hitchhiking itself was not so fruitful (we wanted to get to Podgorica originally), it might have been one of the best experiences I ever had while hitchhiking nonetheless. I highly recommend stopping in Foča for a night, and continue your journey the next day. Also, there is a restaurant by the intersection that has a few rooms for 30€/night. On the other side of the road there's a small convenience store to cover some basic needs.

We first waited for a long time at the gas station before this spot, and then moved to the chicken restaurant at the location to take a break after 90 minutes of waiting. We ate our lunch and asked around a bit with the other people in the restaurant. One of them said they can take us to Foča and ended our wait. He was a fast driver, so I'm pretty sure we were at least 30 min faster than anticipated. Also: I highly recommend the restaurant! Great food at very affordable prices.

We first tried hitchhiking at the intersection after the gas station because cars are relatively slow there, and then moved to the gas station itself to ask around a bit. After 30-40 min, a guy picked us up and drove us to a better spot after the airport. By coincidence, it was the same guy who picked me up 10 days earlier to drive me into Sarajevo. Funny how that happens some times!

My host drove me up to this parking lot just in front of the tunnel entrance. It is not the best spot ever because drivers are pretty fast and they are coming around the corner in a way that they see you very late. There is, however plenty of space to pull over. I think I got a bit lucky, as after 15 minutes a car pulled over and took me all the way to Sarajevo.

Not crowded, but somehow managed to find a ride super quickly because a friendly Austrian guy asked around for me while I was trying some other cars. The people who took me drove a Tesla and wanted to drop me off in Ljubljana but ended up driving me much further to the exact location I needed to be.

First person I asked drove me further, all the way to a parking lot close to Villach

Found a ride fairly quickly despite two other hitchhikers trying the same spot. My driver took me to Raststätte Samerberg.

I wanted to try a new spot to get out of the city, but didn't manage to find a ride after three hours of trying. In theory the spot should be okay though, as the bus stop is directly on the fast road, and people would have a lot of space to stop. There is no shade though which makes the situation a lot worse. So definitely don't attempt this spot in the summer unless you can be here super early. I gave up in the end and took the train to Thessaloniki.