Aberdeen

Aberdeen
<map lat='57.150396' lng='-2.095392' zoom='10' view='0'/>
Information
Country:	Scotland
Population:	184,788
Major roads:	A90, A96
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Aberdeen is the third most populous city in Scotland. It is known as the granite city and is a hub for the oil and gas industry operating in the north sea. It is a major public transport hub with links throughout the north east.

Hitchhiking out

South towards Dundee, Edinburgh or Glasgow

Work your way south of the river to Torry. Walk onto the A956 (Wellington Road). Follow the road A956 south over two roundabouts, the second of which is really big. There are good pavements all the way. Just south of the big roundabout is a petrol station. You can also take the 3A bus instead of walking as it will drop you right at the petrol station From experience thumbing is not very effective, be willing to approach people as they fill up their cars.

A96 North-West towards Inverness, Elgin or Inverurie

Either take a bus or walk out from the city center towards the Bucksburn suburb, following the A96 urban dual-carriageway from the Huidagian Roundabout (from the Huidagian to the Bucksburn roundabout is roughly a 25 min walk). After a while there is a large roundabout with a 'Lidl' supermarket and a MacDonalds above it. Take the road just before the roundabout to the right, called 'Inverurie Road', it rejoins the A96 after a short time. Continue along the main A96, and after about ten minutes you will reach a bus stop. You can also reach this bus stop from city center with an arry of busses to save the walk.

A947 North towards Banff

There are no good places to hitch from if you walk all the way to the edge of the Dyce suburb. You are left with rural roads with nowhere safe nor possible for people to stop for a good distance. I would suggest either hitching from within the Dyce suburb or even closer to Aberdeen with a sign for Oldmeldrum. Other options may be either to hitch to Inverurie and then take the backroad to Oldmeldrum (note: i have not tested this route myself!) or take the bus to Oldmeldrum and hitch onwards from there. Once on the A947 at Oldmeldrum it is quite easy to hitch from town to town.

A92 North towards Peterhead

The A92 is a dual carriage way with few suitable points to pick up hitchhikers from. The best place is a garage on the north side of the river Don. . You might need to approach drivers as thumbing when the trafic is moving so fast can prove a challenge.

Public Transport

Aberdeen has a robust bus network streaching throughout the city. This can provide an easy way of moving about the town, but also a way to reach some of the hitching spots that are otherwise far outside of town. Fares are reasonable, but unavoidable as tickets must be purchased from the driver when you board the bus. There are also regional bus services, north to Inverness and Peterhead, south to Edinburugh and Glasgow, as well as west towards Braemar. There is service from the flixbus network, so you can really catch a bus to anywhere.

There are two train stations within aberdeen. Dyce is on the Inverness to Aberdeen line, and serves as a link to the airport. The main railway station downtown has trains to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee and London. There are automatic ticket barriers at the main station so avoiding fares can be a challenge.

Lastly, there are ferry connection to the Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands. These cannot be hitched, but passenger fares without a bearth are not expensive. You can offten ask around on the boat to find lifts to your final destination on the islands.

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