United Kingdom
Hitchhiking in the United Kingdom easily possible, although the British are a little surprised to see people still doing it these days. Hitchhiking is illegal on the motorways, but is allowed at service stations and slip roads.
When travelling a long distance on the motorways it is best to stick to the service stations as getting a lift on a slip road will take an exceptionally long time. Don't get dropped at any motorway junctions (M25/M4 / M4/M5 / etc) as traffic will be going too fast to stop and you will probably be picked up by the police. In case you do get dropped there your best option is probably to start walking a bit away from the highway, and if you're a foreigner, attach a sign to your backpack saying e.g. "from Holland".
Useful tip: In city libraries you can use Internet PC's for free after a short free registration (some want to see a passport, some aren't that strict).
If you're hitchhiking long distances and considering making a sign, in general people use the motorway names rather than the city names. For example, from London to Cornwall have a sign saying 'M4'. But if you are hitching on a motorway with multiple cities (i.e., M1) it is an idea to use a sign with the city name (e.g., Nottingham, Sheffield).
To France
Hitchhiking from England to France is not too hard. Just hitchhike to Dover.
Countries
Towns and Cities
- Birmingham
- Cambridge
- Dover - best possibility to get over to continental Europe
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Leeds
- London - capital and largest city
- Manchester
- Milton Keynes
- Oxford
- Sheffield
- York
Service stations
- Wikipedia contains articles about service stations on the moterway in the UK!
- map of tab-msas service stations
- motowayservices.info has lots of info about UK service stations
External Links
Liftshare.org is a UK based lift share website
