Within two hours of Amsterdam, six UNESCO World Heritage Sites range from 19 windmills along a polder canal to a 135-kilometre ring of forts — each reachable by public transport and rewarding a full day out.

Six UNESCO World Heritage Sites lie within two hours of Brussels by train or car, ranging from a medieval market square in the city centre to prehistoric flint mines and Victorian canal engineering in the Walloon countryside.

Within two hours of Lisbon, six UNESCO World Heritage Sites span a thousand years of Portuguese and Roman history — from a Manueline monastery at the river’s edge to a Roman temple standing in an Alentejo square.

Seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites lie within two hours of Madrid: Toledo, Cuenca, El Escorial, Aranjuez, Alcalá de Henares, Segovia, and Ávila — all reachable by train or car for a day trip.

From a Baroque royal palace to a medieval abbey and ancient Roman tombs, five UNESCO World Heritage Sites lie within a two-to-four-hour radius of Budapest — each one distinct, each one worth the journey.

Within two hours of Berlin, six UNESCO World Heritage Sites span Prussian palaces, a Reformation city, Bauhaus modernism, Enlightenment gardens, a Victorian warehouse port, and a medieval Hanseatic island.

Within two hours of Barcelona, five UNESCO World Heritage Sites span modernista concert halls, a Cistercian royal monastery, Roman provincial ruins, and 10,000-year-old rock paintings across eastern Spain.

Six UNESCO World Heritage Sites lie within two hours and fifteen minutes of Rome, from the Colosseum and Pompeii’s frozen streets to a Bourbon palace with 1,200 rooms and a Renaissance garden whose fountains still play music.