AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE:  
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US

New Orleans is boisterous and brash, an intoxicating mix of Caribbean spontaneity and European panache. Although battered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the tourist-pulling regions by the river are back in full swing and are as vibrant as ever. In New Orleans, the beat is not something to be resisted. From jazz to blues, it’s an insult to sit on the sidelines. If old men in pristine white suits and sneakers can bust a move, so must you. The food is Louisiana Creole, inspired by European, African, Caribbean and native American cuisine. The French Quarter bears the closest similarity to Quebec City, with its plantation-shuttered homes and get-yourself-lost alleyways. 

CANADIAN COPY:
QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC, CANADA

If we were comparing Quebec City to Europe, it’s sister city would have to be Paris. However on the North American continent its best marriage is found in the extravagant New Orleans. Quebec City is the only walled city north of Mexico and from its fortress to its castles, this city is festooned with history. With 95% of residents claiming French heritage, there have been past referendums on whether Quebec should be independent from Canada – none of which have succeeded.  

Francophiles will be delighted by the city’s gastronomic scene. Every French specialty can be found in bistros along Rue Saint-Jean. From cheese to baguettes, terrine to pate, cassoulet to bouillabaisse, you would be forgiven for forgetting you were in Canada. A village called Ile d’Orleans bolsters the New Orleans association. Found on the outskirts of the city, this is a chocolate-box region renowned for its cottages and vineyards.   

AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, US

It’s hard to know where to begin with New York, and first-time visitors are often overwhelmed by the plethora of sights to tick off. From the natural allure of Central Park to the soaring Empire State Building, cupcakes, bagels, coffee to yellow cabs, the city is a veritable to-do list for travellers.  But the best way to experience the city is to walk. Don’t do a Carrie Bradshaw – ditch the Manolo’s for practical walking shoes and stage your own mini-adventure. From avenues filled with classic Brownstone’s, eccentric shops and the rush of deadline-driven suits, getting lost will leave you with a taste of the real Big Apple.

CANADIAN COPY
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA

Toronto’s lay-out is similar to the grid-plan of New York and as such, many films use Toronto as a New York substitute. It is less dense than New York but this means that as a tourists your chance of being shoved or crowded lessens.  Toronto’s event calendar should not be sniffed at, hosting the Toronto International Film Festival every September. A local foodie movement has seen a rise in farmer’s markets in neighbourhoods all over the city. Toronto is as multicultural as they come, with one in two residents born somewhere else. The cultures thrive in a collage of neighbourhoods and the food is as wonderful as you’d expect, taking cues from long food traditions of Italy, Korea, Malaysia and India.

West Queen West is Toronto’s version of New York’s Brooklyn. This is the creative district of the city and contemporary art abounds. The Museum of Modern Canadian Art is here and it is free to visit. The art is also free to ogle at the Drake Hotel, with public areas displaying modern art from local artists. The Gladstone Hotel is also art-driven and Wallpaper* once named it the coolest hotel in the world. Nearby is the Fairmont Royal York hotel which channels hipster cool with its grow-your-own approach found in a rooftop herb garden and on-site bee colony. Where Yonge and Dundas street meet there is a Times Square doppelganger, which equals New York neon for neon. CN Tower would have to be the match for the Empire State Building too, rising 300 metres above street level.

AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE
BANDERA, TEXAS, US

The cowboy capital of Texas, where everything is bigger – from the dinner plates to the landscape and even the population of cowboy hats. Walk into any self-respecting barbecue house and you will find hat racks dedicated to their very preservation. It would be sacrilege to put the wide-brimmed headgear on the table. Texas is the home of vivid terrain that was popularised in films, harking back to the shoot-em-up westerns of tumbleweed and swinging bar doors. 

CANADIAN COPY:
CALGARY, ALBERTA, CANADA

Set amid the Rocky Mountains, Calgary gives Texas a run for its money with the Calgary Stampede, the biggest rodeo in the world. Around one million rodeo aficionados converge in Calgary for ten days of activities where cowboy hats are not optional. There’s bull riding and steer wrestling as the locals are let loose with lasso’s. The actual rodeo is the world’s richest, with two million Canadian dollars on offer. For some old-school nostalgia, chuck wagon races are not as sedate as you might expect with the race referred to as the “half mile of hell” which sees four wagons career along at 60km per hour. All this action is sure to work up an appetite and the stampede has it covered with free pancake breakfasts served on street corners.  

South of the city is the Cowboy Trail which takes in the historic ranches of the region and lives up to its Wild West pedigree. It’s not hard to see why Calgary is colloquially known as Cowtown. While it has urbanised, thanks to an oil and gas boom that triggered rapid gentrification, the city retains its ranching roots. Don’t be startled to see a denim clad cowboy step onto the concrete sidewalk from an up-opening supercar door.  

AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE:  
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, US

With redwood forests that lay claim to the title of the tallest trees in the world, San Francisco combines nature with urban life in a way that is also found in Canada. With both San Francisco and Vancouver consistently voted the most livable cities in the world, they must be doing something right. And as any self-respecting Australian would know – it starts with coffee. San Francisco is renowned for its coffeehouses as much as it is for its trams and roads so steep that they don’t feel safe.

CANADIAN COPY:
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLOMBIA, CANADA

With sandy beaches backed by snow-crested mountains, this is a city that combines nature and cosmopolitan life with aplomb. The proximity of the environment to the city means that local residents are in tune with a paddock-to-plate food philosophy which forms one pillar of Vancouver’s hipster cool. From the gay scene of the West End to the trendy SoMa and the revival of Gastown, this city has an underground scene that must be explored by foot, by day and by night. The Gastown district has imitation gaslights along cobbled streets and while you’re there, stop in at Button Button which stocks more than one million of the fixtures.

Just like San Francisco, Vancouver works in verticals with its high rise buildings, a density that is restrained by mountains to one side and water to the other. This makes the city a concentration of cultures and urban-dwellers. Stanley Park is one of the continent’s largest city parks with 400 hectares of florals and forest.