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Overseas cities most similar to Australian cities: Homes away from home

By Ben Groundwater

Updated March 29, 2017 — 11.25am

Sydney's overseas equivalent: San Francisco.Credit: iStock

It's such an easy trap to fall into. When you've been away from Australia for a while, and the homesickness is kicking in, you suddenly start finding all of these little things about foreign cities that remind you of where you came from.

"Hey, this is just like Newtown," you think as soon as you see some street art. "Wow, just like the Gold Coast," you tell someone as soon as you see a beach. Sometimes these similarities are imagined, the pure fantasy of the homesick and pining – but sometimes they're real.

There are cities and towns around the world that really do bear a striking resemblance to the places we know and love back home. Sometimes it's aesthetic, sometimes it's cultural. But if you find yourself in any of these places, be prepared for a little nostalgia.

It's not Perth, it's… Cape Town

These two cities share plenty in common, not least their large population of people from South Africa. Both are quite isolated, geographically, both have easy access to world-class wineries (the Swan Valley and Margaret River in Perth, Stellenbosch and Franschhoek in Cape Town), and, in places such as Cottesloe and Scarborough, Clifton and Camps Bay, they both have some of the Earth's most beautiful beaches right on their doorstep.

It's not Melbourne, it's… Montreal

This isn't so much an aesthetic similarity – though both cities share equally unremarkable looks – but more a cultural thing. Both Melbourne and Montreal are all about cosy, friendly bars; great restaurants that span plenty of the world's cuisines; obsessions over things like croissants or bagels that you'd drive across the city to get hold of; excellent theatre and comedy shows; and an overall friendliness that you can't help but be charmed by.

See: 20 reasons to visit Montreal

It's not Byron Bay, it's… Itacare

Itacara is a small beach town in the north of Brazil, a place with postcard-perfect coves and bays ringed by native flora, lapped by clear, warm water, a village with a chilled out vibe where tourists come to relax, hang out, play in drum circles, do capoeira, and generally forget that their former lives exist. Sound familiar? Yeah, you could be in Byron Bay.

It's not Thredbo, it's… Whistler

Though both of these towns are villages that service a ski resort, you can't really compare them in that respect. One is perched below some of the best ski and snowboard terrain in the world. The other is Thredbo. What does link these two towns, however, is their abundance of Australian residents. Close your eyes and stand around Whistler for a while and you could swear you were back in Australia's sunny climes.

It's not Sydney, it's… San Francisco

Anyone who moves from Sydney to San Francisco will feel instantly at home. Both cities command large swathes of harbourside beauty, share an interest in getting out on that harbour in an expensive boat, both have similar climates, provide easy access to beaches from their city centre, and the property prices will have you weeping with sweet nostalgia.

See: 20 reasons to visit San Francisco

It's not Margaret River, it's… Pichilemu

The water is cold in Chile's Pichilemu, and a little bit "sharkie". The waves, however, are world-class, which is why there's always a solid crop of wetsuited surfers out there taming the breaks. This is a small town with a lot of life, close to wine country in the Colchagua, Rapel and Leyda Valleys, and with a growing crop of great restaurants and bars. In other words, it isn't exactly a world away from Margaret River.

It's not Coober Pedy, it's… Cappadocia

If it seems like a town in which most residents live underground, escaping the heat outside by cowering in caves chiselled out of stone, is unique, then you might be surprised. In the Turkish region of Cappadocia, plenty of homes have been carved out of the local rocks – in fact there are entire underground cities here – in much the same way as they have in South Australia's Coober Pedy. The idea is the same, too: escape the fierce heat outside.

Watch: Cappadocia by hot air balloon

It's not Nimbin, it's… Christiania

It's sometimes hard to imagine that Nimbin actually exists. It sounds made up, this place that operates seemingly outside of local laws, where hippies roam bare-footed and free, where space cakes are as easy to buy as a loaf of bread, and where the free-love fantasy of an autonomous commune is beginning to look a little frayed at the edges. Christiania, a hippie community in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, is exactly the same.

It's not the Gold Coast, it's… Venice

OK, this one is kind of a joke. Gold Coasters love telling you that they have more canals that Venice, like it's somehow comparable, like the Bridge of Sighs is matched by the four-lane crossing over Tallebudgera Creek. The Gold Coast is no Venice. It is similar, however, to the new side of Cartagena in Colombia, the Bocagrande, with its high-rise buildings right on the sand. It's got a bit of Miami about it too, with its low-rise 70s beach shacks. You could even compare it to Venice Beach in LA, if you really squinted…

Which overseas cities do you think are the most similar to Australia?

Email: b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Instagram: instagram.com/bengroundwater

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The Sydney Morning Herald