Best spot to hitchhike out of Galway towards Dublin?

Hitchhiking is not illegal in Ireland, unless you're trying to do it on a motorway.

But @domi_94 : forget about any car-share traditions you're used to in continental Europe. For various reasons, Irish motorists are very unlikely to stop and give you a lift, especially on the main Galway-Dublin route. You're more likely to be waiting days rather than hours.

If you need a cheap journey, you might be better off asking on Couchsurfing.com or similar.

Illegal? Under what law?

It was extremely common up until the "vanishing triangle" cases. It almost stopped overnight following those

In my teens I hichhiked into Galway a lot. In later years it became so difficult I gave up.

My advice is dont do it.

Honestly I'd rather give you the money for the fare than advise you to stand at a roundabout for 6 hours.

One way, booked on-line is €13.50.

Ireland has unfortunately adopted a compensation culture. If anything happens to you, you sue(or threaten to sue) and get compensation. Maria Bailey, a sitting TD, fell off a swing in a nightclub when drunk and sued the nightclub owner for damages.

I think the reason why hitch hiking has died out in Ireland at least, is motorists are worried a person they don't know will trip getting in or out of their car and sue them for damages, and then their car insurance premiums will explode.

used to be very common i remember seeing it as a chap in the late 80s/90s- you’d often see lines of people with cardboard thumbing outside towns. More innocent times and also people had far less money. You’d see the very odd one now usually backpackers on a very tight budget like the OP.

Long time ago I used to pick up hitchhikers when driving around Galway, but more particularly remote roads of Connemara. I’m female but stuck with female pax. Last time I picked up a male pedestrian, who wasn’t even thumbing, was a brightly dressed guy on a Scottish island in a very remote area. Weather was appalling and I reckoned I was safe, turned out to be a guy who had come in his own yacht and had been to explore the old remote heritage site I had come from. He seemed almost nervous of me inviting him into my hire car 🤣

Nowadays, in Ireland, I would be nervous of giving any complete stranger a lift, but I would still do it on an island in the right circumstances, eg someone is bad weather heading towards a then/village.

Compo culture always existed, I recall people giving out about compo culture when I was hitching around the country in the early 1990s.

The road network has affected long distance hitchhiking.

Back in the day going from Dublin to Galway you got the Number 66 bus out to Maynooth and started from there.

Now there's no natural starting point if you were going from Dublin to Galway

Plus student car ownership has gone through the roof.

As students in the early 90s none of our crowd had cars, so hitching was a way to get around.

Now loads of students have cars and don't need to hitch.

Plus there are far more frequent and comfortable bus options between cities and even between small towns.

I gave my opinion on why cars nolonger pick up Hitchhikers. It was an opinion, I didn't proclaim it as fact.

I said that I gave up hitchhiking in my late teen's because it simply wasn't happening anymore. People were not picking up.

I wasn't doing Galway to Dublin I was doing 15 miles outside of Galway city on the old Dublin Road to Galway city. Even then it was hit and miss where they might let you off if you ever got one.

I have bivouack'ed in various places around Ireland too and yes you need good stuff and be prepared. I wouldnt fancy doing it tonight.

How are you getting on today?

Hopefully motoring towards Dublin. My thoughts on hitchhiking - having been the hitcher and the driver - is that your appearance is key to getting a lift.

If you are a sole male, the odds are stacked against you. Most drivers willing to take hitchhikers will be male - most of whom won't be as interested in taking a stranger male on a 2hr car journey. There will be a tiny part of their brain telling them that another male might be a physical threat to them but really, they'd rather chat with a young female instead.

Sole male hitchers are much better off trying to get a lift at a petrol station near the M6. It gives you the opportunity to speak to the driver and display that you're not a murderer and that you are just a normal person.

I'd say they're having you on. Very unlikely and unbelievable story.

There's probably more substance than tripping getting out of the car such as pulled away too soon etc as to receive compo would require a negligent act and simply exiting a stationary car, its hard to see how a driver could be negligent. in certain european countries with strict liability on motor vehicles it could be a different case entirely but their damages are way lower as is, suprisingly, inclination to claim. Rideshare seems to be more popular there too though.

that was a nice conclusion of O0’s trip, met some nice people! I will definitely pick hitchhikers up on the Scottish island 😃