I’m just coming home from a trip to the north of Spain, where I took five separate trips using BlaBlaCar. So naturally, I’ve been reminiscing about my experience with the platform and all the people I’ve met. Living in Spain the last decade, I’ve enjoyed taking part in the sharing economy. I had always loved libraries and clothing swaps, but I’ve taken it to the next level by starting to use Airbnb to share homes with strangers, Wallapop to buy or sell items with strangers, and BlaBlaCar to hitch rides in cars with strangers. Sounds…. a bit dangerous, doesn’t it? I’m here to tell you that I’ve survived over 50 trips and wholly advocate for this ride sharing service.

So what exactly is BlaBlaCar? 

BlaBlaCar was invented by a French guy back in 2006 who was annoyed at having to make a long car trip by himself. He thought, hey, what if I could share the costs of gas and also have someone to talk to? Since he was a smart guy – a physicist, apparently – he was able to come up with an app to make his dream come true. His app was initially created to use in France, then it was developed in Spain in 2010 and has since expanded to 22 European countries and has reached more than 65 million users as of 2018 (and surely by now, many millions more). It’s now a company with over 500 employees.

BlaBlaCar makes it possible for drivers and passengers going to the same destinations to find each other and share expenses like gas and tolls. Payment is made through the app itself, so people can avoid sharing any bank details. It’s even good for the environment since every passenger picked up is one less polluting car on the road. It’s also very convenient for people traveling to destinations that aren’t well-connected by trains or buses.

A Netflix comedy movie was made not long ago about this ride sharing experience, showing the worst-case scenarios like the crazy passenger transporting drugs in his suitcase. But in reality, this is not what happens.

Is BlaBlaCar safe?

This social network is based on trust, and each user is required to create an account and verify their profile using their ID card, phone number and email address. It’s also recommended to post a profile photo to increase people’s trust and simply to make it easier to find each other at pickup time.

The app is also very strict about not letting people share contact information before paying for the trip. If the app detects you’re trying to send your phone number or email address, the message will be blocked. Just recently I contacted a driver about a trip to the north of Spain, but she didn’t have a photo or any reviews. She wanted to arrange the trip outside of BlaBlaCar (to “avoid commissions” – although the passenger is the one who pays the commission), and we actually did manage to sneak our email addresses into the messaging platform, but I ultimately didn’t feel comfortable with someone who had no reviews and was trying to cheat the system.

I like to call BlaBlaCar “the Airbnb for cars” because just like the apartment sharing service, there’s a two-way review system. After each trip is completed, the app prompts the driver and the passenger to post a review of the other, making it impossible to see your own review until you’ve published one for the other person. You have to give a rating from 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent and 1 being very bad, and then write a comment about the experience. Of course, as the driver, people are judging your driving skills and your level of friendliness – there are more things at stake. Passengers just need to show up on time and not be a jerk and can generally get a good rating. 

So when you’re planning your trip, you can see the average rating for each person and read the comments that other people have written, as well as how many people rated the person . Just recently I opted not to travel with someone with a 4.3 rating because he had more than one “very bad” review. Honestly, I don’t tend to trust anyone with less than a 4.5. Overall on the app in general, 96% of the ratings are positive.

It’s worth mentioning that BlaBlaCar has partnered with AXA, an insurance company, to provide trip insurance for peace of mind. If anything interferes with your BlaBlaCar trip, the company will refund your money and even reimburse you for additional travel expenses that you incurred as a result of the issue. (Read on to find out how I know this is true!)

My experience with BlaBlaCar

My first time using the ridesharing app was to travel between Ferrol and Santander for Christmas in 2015, just after moving to Galicia. I decided to try this mode of transport because the bus between the two cities would take several hours. I had created a profile a year earlier but never actually used it. So I logged back in and searched Ferrol -> Santander and found Alberto. He accepted my request and we arranged the pickup spot in downtown Ferrol. I showed up, all packed neatly with my red Osprey backpack, and met Alberto and his wife. I climbed into the back seat with the other passenger, a blonde-haired girl who looked maybe a few years younger than me. Right away, we discovered that she was British and also an English teacher on her way back to Santander after a short trip to Galicia. So we started speaking English to each other, apologizing to Alberto and his wife, but they said “no problem, it’s cool you guys have something in common!” We chatted excitedly for the entire four-hour trip to Santander. So my first BlaBlaCar trip brought me a new friend that I would stay in contact with for several years. 

I can’t say the rest of my trips have brought me new friends, but in general everyone has been really nice. I used BlaBlaCar to travel around Galicia in 2016 due to a lack of reliable public transportation options. There was always someone traveling between Ferrol, La Coruña, and Santiago de Compostela when I wanted to go!

Later, when I moved to Salamanca for a short time, I used the service quite a bit to escape the boring town I was living in. I decided to spend the Halloween and All Saints’ Day weekend back in Galicia. To travel back to Salamanca on Sunday afternoon, I booked a ride with driver Antonio, who lived in Cádiz but had his kids and ex-wife in La Coruña. (This is a 10-hour drive that he has to make twice a month!)

On this trip I would have the only negative incident I’ve ever experienced with BlaBlacar. On the highway about halfway through the trip, in the middle of nowhere, we felt a “pop” which meant the tire had been punctured. Antonio immediately called his insurance company, but they informed him since it was a holiday (and a Sunday), it might take longer for the tow truck to come, and we’d have to go a bit further away to find a mechanic that was open. We spent hours and hours, between waiting for the tow truck, riding to the next city (Astorga), and waiting for the mechanic to assess the situation. Antonio’s really nice car was not a common one, so the mechanic had to order the new tire, which wouldn’t come in until the following week. Antonio would have to catch a train back to Cádiz, take another train back to Astorga the next week to pick up his car, and drive back to Cádiz again. Poor Antonio. He was so apologetic with us, but it wasn’t his fault. 

In Astorga, I evaluated my options. There was a bus back to Salamanca, but I had just missed the last one for the day. I decided to book a cheap hotel room in town and just enjoy the evening and catch the first bus back on Monday. I discovered that BlaBlaCar’s insurance would cover the costs! All I had to do was submit the hotel receipt and the bus ticket and receipt, and BlaBlaCar refunded the money in just a few days. So I got to enjoy one more night of “vacation” having wine and tapas in the plaza mayor of Astorgas, sleeping in a lovely little hotel, and heading back to Salamanca after a nice breakfast.

Since then, fortunately I haven’t had any more negative experiences. When I moved to Madrid, I booked rides to visit Bilbao and Santander some weekends, there was always a wealth of options with so many people wanting to get out of Madrid for the weekend.

Now living in Zaragoza, I have access to the AVE high-speed train so I don’t need it to travel to Madrid or Barcelona, but train connections to the north are sparse so I always find a BlaBlaCar to travel to Bilbao or Cantabria. I also get to experience the ride sharing service in reverse, with Sole as the driver when we travel long distances, helping pick the right passengers and respond to messages.

Now with over 58 trips taken as the passenger and several more as the copilot, I’ve traveled with well over 100 people, 3+ dogs, a kitten in a purse, and a rabbit. I can now say with confidence that, yes, most of the people I travel with are just normal people, and also, there are certain types of people who frequently use the popular ridesharing app.

The types of people you meet in a BlaBlaCar

-The hustler. This is usually a highly extroverted sales rep. In one case I traveled with a pair of sales reps coming from a HerbaLife (MLM nutrition company) convention. Work is always on their minds, they alter between talking a lot about their jobs and taking phone calls related to their jobs. They almost always drive too fast – one driver got up to 160 km per hour – but act overly confident because they spend “so much time on the road.” Awkwardly, none of the passengers ever say anything to the driver about the high speed, but some will leave a negative rating or comment afterward. Others are just delighted to get to their destinations much earlier than anticipated.

-The hippie ones who are living the independent dream with their camper van. I’ve traveled with several of these types and they usually provide amazing conversation. They love travel,  camping, surfing, and they’re extremely open-minded. Most recently (and also the cover photo of this post), I traveled to Asturias with a young Catalan couple in a 1991 camper van. The boyfriend was a musician who had traveled all around Europe for a year in the van, which was affectionately named “Mary van Jane.” 

-The nervous older lady who’s terrified of being kidnapped but her adult kids set her up an account on the app. They’re usually kind of cute once they relax a little, and they have plenty of stories to share. Once I traveled 10 hours from Bilbao to Granada with an older woman (the driver) who was using the app for the first time and was clearly nervous. Her elderly mother called frequently to check in to make sure we passengers hadn’t murdered her. 

-The person who doesn’t actually have a BlaBlaCar app, despite everyone and their grandma having a smartphone. This person’s friend booked the trip for them on their own app, explaining “it’s for my friend…”. This “friend” is usually not all that friendly or interested in conversation with the other passengers. They’re not getting the reviews anyway! Sole’s policy is usually to say no to those requests because you have no idea what kind of person you’re going to end up with. Get your own BlaBlaCar app, people!

-The 20-year-old on their way to or from a music festival. Fun, chatty for a while, then they disappear into their phones for the rest of the trip. Gotta check their Instagram stories from all those concerts.

-The divorced dad who lives halfway or all the way across the country from his kids, but has to travel to see them weekly or biweekly. I always feel bad for these guys. (Poor Antonio!)

-The annoyed displaced worker who’d rather be living back in their province and not in Madrid. They usually go home every weekend and frequently travel with others who are doing the same. I discovered this fascinating “club” one weekend visiting Santander from Madrid. There are entire WhatsApp groups created by these people to arrange their trips privately outside of BlaBlaCar. They usually have a lot of complaints about life in Madrid and are just counting the days until they can get a job closer to home, usually by way of a civil servant exam (the famous “oposiciones”). These are usually the people who travel with their pets. 

-The person who doesn’t speak English or Spanish so is silent the whole time after an awkward bit of attempting to use Google Translate. My favorite was the Senegalese nun that Sole and I picked up on our way to France last summer. She was adorable! 

-The partier who stayed out all night the night before and sleeps the whole trip (see: the music festival attendee). True story, Sole and I picked up a girl in her 20s who hadn’t slept the night before, so she fell asleep immediately, only waking up when we stopped for coffee, buying a giant calamari sandwich to ease her hangover, and then going back to sleep until we got to Lisbon. 

So yes, these are generalizations, but nearly all the people I’ve met traveling with BlaBlaCar have been interesting and kind. I 100% recommend traveling this way!