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Budapest – the Paris dupe: Grand boulevards, riverside romance and café culture at a lower price.
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Ljubljana & Lake Bled – the Venice dupe: Arched bridges, pastel facades and waterside charm.
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Altea – the Santorini dupe: The same whitewashed, blue-domed, golden-hour magic.
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The Albanian Riviera – the Amalfi Coast dupe: Turquoise water and switchback coastal roads.
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Kotor – the Dubrovnik dupe: Medieval stone streets and Adriatic views, backed by mountains.
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Zanzibar – the Maldives dupe: The same white sand and impossible blue, plus Stone Town history.
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Krabi – the Phuket dupe: Phuket's turquoise Andaman coast, plus limestone cliffs.
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Hobart – the Stockholm dupe: Nordic design instincts, gallery culture and cold-water clarity.
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Taipei – the Seoul dupe: All the night-market energy and neon buzz.
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Pattaya – the Bangkok dupe: Bangkok's street food and nightlife, relocated to the coast.
Destination dupes are having a serious moment, with travellers swapping crowded, expensive hotspots for places that offer a similar mood, landscape or experience. The best alternatives aren’t exact copies. They give you the part of the original destination you’re really chasing (whether that’s Mediterranean glamour, city energy, wildlife or a great beach) without the cost, crowds and booking competition.
For 2027, these are the destinations to know.
Budapest for Paris
Budapest has its own grand boulevards, riverside views and café culture. It’s the kind of elegance that draws people to Paris, minus the price tag and the queues. Drift down the Danube at dusk, take in the Hungarian Parliament from the water, and finish the day sinking into one of the city’s thermal baths, a ritual unique to the city.
Choose Budapest for the romance of a European capital with a personality that isn’t trying to be anyone’s understudy.
Also worth a look: Lyon, Amsterdam, Brussels.
Ljubljana and Lake Bled for Venice
Slovenia‘s compact capital has the riverside cafés, arched bridges and pastel facades that make Venice so photographed, but without the tour groups pressing in on every corner. Nearby, Lake Bled adds the kind of storybook, alpine drama postcards are made of.
It won’t give you canals or centuries of maritime art, but it does offer more room to enjoy where you are.
Also worth a look: Bruges, Annecy, Piran.
Altea for Santorini
On Spain’s Costa Blanca, Altea‘s whitewashed old town climbs a hill above the sea, its blue-domed church catching the same golden light that makes Santorini so irresistible on camera. The comparison is about mood and colour rather than geology. There’s no caldera here, no volcanic beaches, but the sun-bleached, photogenic magic is unmistakably present.
Choose it if it was always really about the white walls and the sunset, not the specific island.
Also worth a look: Milos, Naxos, Serifos.
The Albanian Riviera for the Amalfi Coast
Turquoise water, switchback coastal roads, stone villages and seafood lunches – the Albanian Riviera has all the ingredients that made the Amalfi Coast famous, with a rawer, less manicured edge. Himarë, Dhërmi and Ksamil are the names worth learning now, while this stretch of coast is still an emerging story.
For Mediterranean drama without Amalfi’s price tag or its peak-season intensity.
Also worth a look: the Algarve, Puglia, Montenegro.
Kotor and Perast for Dubrovnik
Kotor‘s medieval old town, hemmed in by steep mountains, and the palace-lined waterfront of nearby Perast carry the same old-world charm that draws travellers to Dubrovnik‘s walls. The Bay of Kotor is more fjord-like than the open Adriatic, giving the whole experience a moodier, more dramatic backdrop.
Historic streets and coastal scenery at a noticeably slower pace.
Also worth a look: Rovinj, Korčula, Herceg Novi.
Bacalar for Tulum
Bacalar trades Tulum‘s Caribbean shoreline for the Lagoon of Seven Colors, a vast freshwater lake ringed by jungle, hammocks and low-key stays right on the water. Days here were made for paddleboards and boat trips rather than beach clubs.
It’s a lagoon town, not a beach town: a quieter register of the same tropical escape.
Also worth a look: Holbox, Todos Santos, Puerto Escondido.
Zanzibar for the Maldives
Zanzibar has the white sand and impossibly blue water that define the Maldives, plus something the Maldives can’t offer in quite the same way: layers of history and culture on land. Wander Stone Town, visit a spice farm, snorkel the Indian Ocean, then choose between a boutique guesthouse and a polished beachfront resort.
If you want the tropical luxury and a place with stories to tell beyond the shoreline, this is for you.
Also worth a look: the Seychelles, Sumba, Rangiroa.
Krabi for Phuket
Krabi shares Phuket’s turquoise Andaman Sea and easy island-hopping, but stacks the drama higher (sheer limestone cliffs rising straight out of the water) and turns the volume down. Base yourself in Ao Nang, take a longtail to Railay, or spend your days drifting between the smaller islands offshore.
It’s the version of this coast for travellers who’ll happily trade Phuket‘s nightlife and shopping for a calmer pace.
Also worth a look: Koh Yao Noi, Koh Lanta, Langkawi.
The Maasai Mara for Kruger
The Mara’s open grasslands deliver the same Big Five drama that draws people to Kruger, built around the Great Migration, Maasai culture and intimate tented camps rather than self-drive convenience. A hot-air balloon at dawn, drifting over wildebeest herds, is a perspective Kruger can’t offer.
They’re not interchangeable; Kruger rewards independent exploration, while the Mara is built for migration season and big-cat encounters – but both deliver what they promise.
Also worth a look: the Serengeti, the Okavango Delta, Madikwe Game Reserve.
Hobart for Stockholm
There’s a certain kind of traveller drawn to Stockholm‘s clean lines, gallery-hopping and cold-water calm – and Hobart, on the other side of the world, answers that same longing with a wilder accent. Tasmania’s capital pairs a walkable waterfront and a contemporary art scene (MONA remains one of the most talked-about museums anywhere) with colonial streets in Battery Point and Salamanca Place. Venture further out, and you’re quickly among rugged coastline, Bruny Island’s oyster shacks and the pink granite peaks of Freycinet.
Choose Hobart if what you loved about Stockholm was the design sensibility and the proximity to nature — but you’re craving more warmth, more wilderness, and a little less polish.
Also worth a look: Helsinki, Copenhagen, Gothenburg.
Taipei for Seoul
Taipei has the neon, the night markets and the restless food culture that pull people toward Seoul – condensed into something more compact and unhurried. Spend your evenings working through skewers and stinky tofu stalls, then trade K-pop pilgrimages for temple courtyards, hot springs and mountain trails that start practically at the edge of the city.
Choose Taipei if you’re craving an Asian city break built around eating well, without quite so much ground to cover.
Also worth a look: Osaka, Fukuoka, Hong Kong.
Pattaya for Bangkok
Pattaya carries Bangkok‘s appetite for nightlife, street food and market wandering, but sets it down by the water. Resort hotels, boat trips to Koh Larn and quieter mornings change the speed entirely, while the Sanctuary of Truth and Nong Nooch’s gardens give the city more cultural weight than its beach-town reputation suggests.
It won’t replace Bangkok’s temples or its sheer urban scale – think of it instead as the shorter, easier-breathing companion trip.
Also worth a look: Chiang Mai, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City.
Memphis for Nashville
If Nashville‘s pull is live music and proper Southern cooking, Memphis offers the same appetite with a grittier, older soul. Beale Street after dark, the hush of Sun Studio, the weight of the National Civil Rights Museum, and barbecue that locals will argue about for hours.
Choose it if you’d rather find your music in blues and soul clubs than on a honky-tonk strip.
Also worth a look: Austin, New Orleans, Muscle Shoals.
A destination dupe only works if you’re honest with yourself about what drew you to the original in the first place. If Santorini was about the whitewashed architecture, Altea might be all you need. If the Maldives was about the water, Zanzibar hands you more to fill the days around it. If Kruger was about the wildlife, the Maasai Mara offers its own, equally thrilling version of that same drama. However, if you were always curious to stay at a specific hotel, tick off an iconic attraction or line up the exact shot you keep seeing on social media, there’s no replacement for the real deal.
None of this is about finding an exact copy. It’s an invitation to travel a little more curiously – and to end up somewhere that becomes, unexpectedly, your new favourite.
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Featured image: Lake Bled, Slovenia. Image credit: Shutterstock / Francesco Scatena.
