Hippie Trail - The Route(s)

The Route(s)

Such journeys would typically start from countries in western Europe, often London or Amsterdam. Many from the US took Icelandic Airlines to Luxembourg. Most journeys passed through Istanbul, from where routes divided. The usual northern route passed through Tehran, Herat, Kandahar, Kabul, Peshawar and Lahore to India. An alternative route was from Turkey via Syria, Jordan, and Iraq to Iran and Pakistan. All travellers had to cross the Pakistan-India border at Ganda Singh Wala (or later at Wagah). Delhi, Varanasi (then called Benares), Goa, Kathmandu, or Bangkok were the usual destinations in the east. Kathmandu still has a road, Jochen Tole, nicknamed Freak Street in memory of the many thousands of hippies who passed through. Further travel to southern India, Kovalam beach in Trivandrum (Kerala) and some to Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon), and points east and south to Australia was sometimes also undertaken.

The bulk of travelers comprised Western Europeans, North Americans, Australians, and Japanese. Ideas and experiences were exchanged in well known hostels and hotels along the way, such as the Pudding Shop in Istanbul, Sigi's on Chicken Street in Kabul or the Amir Kabir in Teheran. Many carried a backpack and, while the majority were young, older people and families occasionally travelled the route. A number drove the entire distance.

In the mid-1970s, a number of operators attempted to commercialise the route. Some of the more successful at taking paying passengers included Transit Travel, AutoTours, Sundowners and Top Deck.

The overland trail suffered from political changes at the end of the 1970s. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the Shah was deposed by an Islamic revolution in Iran. Still, the travel organizers "Sundowners" and "Topdeck" pioneered a route through Baluchistan. Topdeck continued its trips throughout the Iran-Iraq war and later conflicts, but took its last trip in 1998.

In September 2007, a new bus service, Ozbus, started between London and Sydney over the route of the hippie trail. In 2008 the Odyssey Overland Company began a series of 6 month drives along the old Silk Road north of Iran, across Tibet to Kathmandu and with a termination in Darwin, Australia, and also run 3-month expeditions along the northern Silk Road between Beijing and Istanbul and Kathmandu and Istanbul .

With a loosening of immigration in Iran the route has again become somewhat feasible, although continuing conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan make the route difficult to negotiate.