Since you haven’t gotten any responses from hitchhikers, I’ll put in a couple of thoughts to keep this up at the top.

You’d definitely save, but I’m not sure that hitch-hiking for day trips will be a big money-saver. Tickets for short hops on trains and buses are relatively cheap and in some areas it is customary for hitch-hikers to help pay expenses.

Another issue would be flexibility. Assuming 3 of you want to ride together, you may have some difficulty getting rides. You may need to get out of the central city to hitch-hike and you may have to wait quite a while for a lift. If you don’t get a ride until noon, you’re day trip is kind of shot — does “ok, so we try again tomorrow” fit your style? Getting back to your base city in the evening may be a bigger problem since much of the traffic is commuters going into the big city in the morning and back out at night. What happens if you don’t get a lift? Your gear and your probably-paid-for-bed is somewhere else.

You should count on the fact that whoever speaks German as their mother tongue will NOT take any hitchhikers. Exceptions are very rare. You might get quite easily from Prague to Munich, though, provided a Czech car will stop for you.

For hitchiking longer distances, you can use the German hitchhiking boards. The idea is that you share costs, about 5 euro per person per 100 km. Maybe a bit cheaper if you are three guys.

http://www.mitfahrge…

http://www.mitfahrze…

In most countries, hitchhiking is not very common anymore. In Holland it is rarely seen as all the students have now free train passes.