Konstanz

Konstanz is a city at the Lake Constance in south Germany at the Swiss border.

South towards Switzerland, A7
To get to any city in Switzerland go to the main border and hold up your sign at the parking lot on the Swiss side. Just a couple of meters behind it the motorway A7 starts.

Many cars go to the next petrol station from there, for petrol is much cheaper in Switzerland than in Germany.

East towards Meersburg, Ravensburg
If you want to go to Ravensburg it is best to take the ferry to Meersburg (last stop of Bus No 1). It usually goes 4 times an hour, at night just once every hour. Ask the people who drive there either while waiting for the ferry or in the little café on the ship. If it is cold or raining you can wait in a heated waiting room until the ferry arrives. This is definitely the best way to get out heading east. If you are heading to Munich, you should also try here. The roads on the south side of the Bodensee are tiny, take ages and the traffic sporadic. Try and get a ride before getting off the other side, then you don't have to pay at all!

West towards A81, Singen, Stuttgart, Freiburg
Going west on the 33 towards the A81 Stuttgart−Singen, the first service area is Rasthof Hegau on the A81.

There is a good hitching spot just after the entrance to the Burger King drive thru on the B33 in Konstanz. Take a bus (number 6) to Neuwerk and you will be next to a big orange building. Go behind the building and you will see the main road - this is the B33. Turn right along that road (away from the city centre) and you will see the entrance to the Burger King drive thru. About 20m behind that, the road is in 3 lanes (before the traffic lights) and one lane is crossed out, which means that cars do not drive on this section and therefore people have the chance to stop for you here easily. Waiting times are fast (normally between 5 and 20mins) and you should wait to get a ride at least to Rasthof Hegau on the A81 as there are not really any other better spots in between. Simply holding a sign saying "Autobahn" works the best and this spot is good because it's where all roads meet that are leading out of the city towards the A81. This means you get the maximum amount of traffic possible going in the right direction but they are not going quickly because about 30m further up the road there are some traffic lights. Most people seem to be travelling in the direction of Freiburg so unless you are lucky, you will need to ask to get out at Rasthof Hegau in order to go further in the direction of Stuttgart.

There is a really good spot if you want to go north via the A 81: Just take bus number 11 direction Wollmatingen. Go to the very last station. In case of big luggage you can also ask the driver if he could take you 500m further to his turning point, no regular busstop, but you can save some meters of walking :) Then you just have to follow the road to the big crossing (100m). Cross the streets till you are on the other side of the roads, just straight, where the road makes a small turn to the left. Also the other road looks far bigger, This is the right one which takes you to the B33 and the motorway. The good thing is that you catch all the cars coming from the villages around and the "ring road" of Konstanz. 50m after the crossing a small fieldtrack leads into the road, a potential stop-area for your ride! Stay a little in front of it, so that the cars waiting at the lights can see you and that they have enough time to see the stop-area. I´ve hitchhiked fromt there many times, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, and -no joke- we never waited for more than 5 minutes. It´s quite likely that you can skip Hegau, most of the cars can take you way further (f.e. rest area "Schönbuch",right before Stuttgart)

Konstanz