Travel

Couple travel almost 6,000 miles for free thanks to hitchhiking with strangers


Alessia and Jente have travelled 13 countries by hitchiking (Picture: MDWfeatures / The Art Of Hitchhiking)

A couple have travelled almost 6,000 miles by hitchhiking in a bid to show that jumping in strangers’ cars ‘isn’t dangerous’.

Jente Jacobs, 23, and Alessia Capraro, 22, are the creators of The Art Of Hitchhiking, a project that sees them share photos and videos of their travels as they grab rides from whoever will stop by the side of the road.

The couple met and fell in love during a year-long foreign exchange programme that brought them both to the Dominican Republic in 2014.

Once their programme finished, Jenta returned to Belgium and Alessia returned to Italy. They continued a long-distance relationship for three years, travelling to see each other once a month.

They decided to celebrate their shared love of travel by exploring the world together – but with limited funds, moving around would be tough.

The couple in Puglia, Italy (Picture: MDWfeatures / The Art Of Hitchhiking)

Rather than giving up, the couple set about on adventuring from city to city by hitchhiking.

Thanks to the kindness of strangers, the couple have travelled 5,800 miles over 13 different countries: Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Italy – all on a budget of less than £25 a day.

‘When you travel in this way, you cannot really prepare yourself for it,’ Alessia says. ‘Every decision is taken at the very last minute.

‘Before leaving we can just plan the first two/three days, and then we need to let everything just go as it needs to go.

They stick to a strict budget to keep costs low (Picture: MDWfeatures / The Art Of Hitchhiking)

‘To travel as long as possible, we live on a budget of €15 (£12.85) per day, per person. We don’t use any money for transportation, so all our money goes to food and accommodation.

‘We use couch surfing a lot, but it isn’t always easy to find a host in every city. If nobody can give us a place to sleep, we choose the cheapest hostel/hotel we can find. We also have a tent if there is a camping place available.

‘I think the most difficult thing to accept for [family] was the fact that we travel by hitchhiking. But, in the end everything went well. They accepted it, maybe also the fact that Jente is travelling with me and I am not a girl travelling alone.

‘We don’t hitchhike when it is dark outside. In the dark you can’t see the drivers very well who stop.

Alessia looking out over the landscape in Albania from Berat Castle (Picture: MDWfeatures / The Art Of Hitchhiking)

‘As this is very important to get a good feeling about the driver, we prefer to not take the risk to step in a car with the wrong person. Never get in a car with someone who you don’t trust.’

Between trips, the couple live in Belgium and take on any job they can to save up for their next adventure. In 2019 the pair decided to begin a social media page dedicated to their travels.

Their adventures have seen them share some amazing experiences, from visiting Portugal’s Quinta da Regaleira to the Ancient Greek temple of Poseidon in Athens.

As exciting as the pair have found travelling the globe and hitchhiking, they are aware of the dangers of their methods, and are super careful about personal safety.

The couple say they have to trust every driver they accept a ride from (Picture: MDWfeatures / The Art Of Hitchhiking)

But the couple hope that their adventures will show people that hitchhiking is a viable money-saving option for travelling.

‘Some friends called me crazy before starting this adventure,’ says Jente. ‘But a lot of them came to me, after following our first trips, and said that it looks awesome and they want to try it themselves one day.

‘So, I concluded it isn’t such a crazy idea.

‘One of the best experiences was definitely Albania. Thinking about the prejudices people have about the country and their inhabitants and what we really encountered – the difference couldn’t be bigger. We were never welcomed in such a friendly way.

‘The aim of our social media project is to break down the wrong prejudices about a country/culture and show the kindness, generosity and hospitality in the world. Attract people who also want to rebuild their own image of the world.

‘Also, we want to show that hitchhiking isn’t dangerous at all.’

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