Not much traffic off season. Mostly Turkish cars with 34 area code. Many trucks with 16. I needed to go to Sofia so i tried to go east with sign Bulgaria and west with Sign Thessaloniki. Sometimes both while standing in the middle and turning for cars/trucks. Going to Turkey should be possible since i got offered rides by truck drivers. The police were really chill only checked my Passport and told me they have to kick me out if someone reports me and chatted with me about traveling while doing their checks. The checkpoint and police presence probably made the drivers not stop for me. 1 male

Non much traffic but I was lucky enough to catch a truck to Thessaloniki

Not bad space for stopping and nice place to sleep near by the abandoned tools but it's very hard to get here from Thessaloniki, probably the best way is to hitchhike here. There is a bus but it's a ghost bus that exists only on Google maps and as it was already dark I don't think that hitchhiking would work well. At the end I had to WALK HERE FOR OVER 18 KILOMETERS which took me around 4 hours and I got here around 4 am... But except for that I think it's not a bad spot for going to North Macedonia

Good spot for getting to Thessaloniki, behind the tools. On parking right next to the tools there are toilets that looked like they were for free but I haven't tested them so I can't guarantee that

Right after tools, great spot and both tools staff and police that passed (that was the first time I saw them on highway in Greece by the way) didn't care about me hitchhiking here. I quickly got ride to the next tools close to Thessaloniki

I had to wait a little but this is Greece so it wasn't unexpected. After little over two hours I got ride further towards Thessaloniki to the tools station. You have quite good visibility here and there is space for stopping, technically you are still standing before highway entry sign so if police comes you can try to use that fact to don't get fined but it's very unlikely that you will see them so don't worry about it too much. Also in small forest in between two highway ramps and highway itself there is not bad place for sleeping, it's not perfect either but it works

I was little bit afraid to go here in the first place because of fine risk but it's really good spot, guy stopped in literally 7 minutes and took me closer towards Thessaloniki. Only down site is that speeds on highway are high and I needed to run a little to my driver's car as stopping on highway takes some time

Went here with bus 84A and a 15 minute walk including a climb over a ditch holding no water late September (I hope it’s always like this) and a small fence after failing to leave Thessaloniki from the ramp at the bp. Many cars with Bulgarian plates and got a lift after 30 minutes (with a sign saying Sofia).

Not so much traffic, but we got really lucky to catch a ride to Thessaloniki really quick

Not the best spot. Right on the street with not much shade but we got lucky quickly and got a ride to the sea. We didnt have a destination in mind but he would have also made a detour to drive us to Thessaloniki. 2 males

Not the best spot. Right on the street with not much shade but we got lucky quickly and got a ride to the sea. We didnt have a destination in mind but he would have also made a detour to drive us to Thessaloniki. 2 males

Great Spot, as a couple we didnt even wait 2 minutes and a nice guy picked us up directly to Thessaloniki and even drove us to the Center. Just be careful to Not stand in the way of Cars. We used a sign.

Took a series of rides to get from here to the Turkish border, worked well. However, I strongly recommend against taking the bus to Analipsi as others have said; I would recommend to take the 83 bus from Thessaloniki, and then there is a stop that is right next to the highway. From there, I would say just climb up onto the highway and stick your thumb out, then get a ride to this gas station/rest stop. The second bus (91A) to Analipsi does not run very often and will require you to go much further north than the highway, when you can just stop and get out right next to the highway instead.

Took a series of rides to get from here to the Turkish border, worked well. However, I strongly recommend against taking the bus to Analipsi as others have said; I would recommend to take the 83 bus from Thessaloniki, and then there is a stop that is right next to the highway. From there, I would say just climb up onto the highway and stick your thumb out, then get a ride to this gas station/rest stop. The second bus (91A) to Analipsi does not run very often and will require you to go much further north than the highway, when you can just stop and get out right next to the highway instead.

Took a series of rides to get from here to the Turkish border, worked well. However, I strongly recommend against taking the bus to Analipsi as others have said; I would recommend to take the 83 bus from Thessaloniki, and then there is a stop that is right next to the highway. From there, I would say just climb up onto the highway and stick your thumb out, then get a ride to this gas station/rest stop. The second bus (91A) to Analipsi does not run very often and will require you to go much further north than the highway, when you can just stop and get out right next to the highway instead.

Great location to hitch a ride out of Athens to the north in the direction of Lamia, Larissa, Thessaloniki. This street is directly going onto the highway, so every car that's passing you is going in the right direction. I was there during the week at 9AM in the morning. Because so many people go to work, there is a traffic jam on this on-ramp, so you can easily talk to drivers. The on-ramp also has a sidewalk, so it's completely safe to stand there. Most drivers don't go far but they can drop you on the highway at ha toll station and from there it's very easy to hitch a truck that's going all the way.

No luck. Sign with Thessaloniki. Ended up taking the bus at 20:00 for 22,70€ after a long day in the sun

Lots of room to stop in the emergency lane, but 2 different police cars pulled over and told me off for standing on the highway, but eventually I got taken all the way to Thessaloniki. Just hope no police come past.

I wanted to try a new spot to get out of the city, but didn't manage to find a ride after three hours of trying. In theory the spot should be okay though, as the bus stop is directly on the fast road, and people would have a lot of space to stop. There is no shade though which makes the situation a lot worse. So definitely don't attempt this spot in the summer unless you can be here super early. I gave up in the end and took the train to Thessaloniki.

To go back from Mount Athos to Thessaloniki, just make some friends during your pilgrimage/trip. A lot of people come from there and will go back by car. Thanks George and Theodoris!