Petrol station hitchhiking

Petrol station hitchhiking, as well as hitchhiking on service stations in general, is a great way to travel for free in countries where hitchhiking on highways is forbidden. It generally works best if the number of petrol stations on a highway is around 1-2 per 100-150 km (?). On most gas stations you can easily find cars going your direction, although you have to be aware of highway splits, too.

Germany is especially good for this. In France it works slightly worse (even though still good enough) because of the higher number of gas stations per given distance, thus relatively less cars per gas station.

In general, avoid so called Autohofs when in Germany - these are truck stops located further from highways, and you can lose quite some time while waiting for a ride there.

When in Germany, it is generally recommended to avoid the so called Autohofs which usually are not great for hitching a ride mostly because they are not located directly on highways and it is hard to get a ride from there in exact direction of where you are heading to.

Sometimes it can be useful to get in touch with people who work on a gas station. Asking drivers directly instead of waiting for the car at the area's exit is a good way to catch a ride. It is recommended that female-hitchhikers first ask the male driver(s) where he (they) is (are) going to, instead of revealing one's own destination in a question to the driver, so that during the conversation it would become clear if it is safe or not to go with that driver, and if it feels risky, one can pretend not going the same direction.

Masaru hitchhiking at a gas station

Starting a conversation will give drivers more chances to look at you as a person. It is less likely then that their answer will be negative if the direction of yours and the driver's destinations matches.

In Italy you have to be careful: it is illegal to hitchhike on so called autostrada, although it is a bit unclear if it is illegal to do that on autostrada gas stations as well.