10-08-2025
The lost art of hitchhiking: What we can still learn from travel's most radical mode?
Long dismissed as dangerous, hitchhiking is being rediscovered by a new generation of travellers seeking connection, adventure and a low-carbon way to see the world.
In 2022, travellers Alexandra Menz and Bernhard Endlicher were standing on the side of the road under the blazing sun near the Turkish-Syrian border, trying to make it to Mardin. It was too hot to walk, so they mustered their friendliest smiles and stuck their thumbs out to hitchhike. A car soon screeched to a halt, and inside was a bride wearing a white dress and a groom in a tuxedo.
"Hop in! We're going to our wedding," the couple said. An hour later, Menz and Endlicher found themselves in the Kurdish city of Nusaybin as guests at the couple's nuptials.
Welcome to a day in the itinerant lives of Menz and Endlicher, an Austrian duo who have documented their 4,000 car rides with strangers in more than 65 countries on social media. Lured by its low carbon footprint and high chance at authentic human connection, the couple have chosen hitchhiking as their literal and figurative vehicle to travel.
