They rode secondhand 50cc scooters from the Netherlands to London. Top speed: 28 mph uphill. Nine days to cover a distance most people drive in six hours. And they insist it was the best trip they've ever taken.
In an era of bucket lists, Instagram itineraries, and maximizing every vacation day, two travelers proved that the slowest journey often delivers the richest experience – and that strangers will always help when you break down.
"We bought two of the cheapest secondhand scoots we could find," they explained in a trip report on r/travel. The bikes – tiny 50cc mopeds most people wouldn't trust to cross town – became their vehicles for a 250-kilometer journey through Holland, across the English Channel, and into the UK.
They packed camping gear, strapped it to bikes that were never designed for touring, and set off with one simple goal: reach London, see Big Ben, get back.
The journey was everything modern travel isn't. At a top speed of 50 kph (28 mph on flat ground, 15 kph uphill), there's no rushing. You have time to look around. You see tulip fields, heather-covered hills, and small forests that you'd miss in a car. When roads close, you ignore the signs and ride anyway. When a bridge floods, you carry both scooters one by one over a ditch.
"We held up quite a bit of traffic, but everyone was friendly and laughed when they passed us," they wrote. Riding steep hills became a challenge requiring commitment – no stopping mid-climb or you'd never get going again.
The slow pace created unexpected wildlife encounters: squirrels, foxes, pheasants, peacocks, hares, rabbits, and a deer at dawn. Not viewed from behind windshield glass at highway speed, but experienced as part of the landscape you're moving through.
Evening stops at rural pubs became highlights. "Often they had to ask if we didn't mean motorcycles instead of mopeds." Not a single bad experience. When one scooter stalled, multiple people stopped within 15 minutes to offer help.
The trip embodied a philosophy articulated by legendary Vespa rider Giorgio Bettinelli, who rode 250,000 kilometers through 134 countries on a scooter:
"When breakdowns happen, you wait. Someone comes, someone helps. A car, a truck, a camel. An hour, a day. Someone comes, someone helps."
Weather cooperated more than expected: one 15-minute downpour, two brief drizzles, cold nights near freezing. They camped most nights, splurged on a hotel in London, and proved that adventure doesn't require expensive gear or exotic destinations.
The engineering tour they completed – visiting the Maeslantkering, a massive storm surge barrier that literally seals off the ocean during high tides – was as impressive as any natural wonder. Dutch engineering preventing catastrophic flooding, viewed from the seat of a €200 scooter.
Why This Matters
In travel culture dominated by "10 countries in 14 days" itineraries and influencer bucket lists, this trip is a radical counter-argument: slow down. The constraints of a tiny scooter – limited speed, frequent stops, vulnerability to weather – aren't bugs, they're features.
You can't blast past experiences at 28 mph. You have to engage with your surroundings, talk to locals, accept help when things break, laugh at yourself when cars pass your uphill crawl.
The travelers are now planning longer trips using the same approach. Not despite the limitations of small scooters, but because of them.
The best travel isn't about the destination – it's about what you learn along the way. And traveling slow enough to hold up traffic, wave at passing drivers, and spend evenings at pubs explaining your ridiculous journey? That's where the real memories live.
