Many cities have nearby retreats comparable to the high-end Hamptons

The Hamptons, roughly a two-hour drive from New York City, is a popular retreat with big beaches, fine restaurants and plenty of emulators.

Residential property brokers around the world associate their pricey listings with the Hamptons, a collection of resort towns on the south fork of Long Island where many wealthy New Yorkers spend their weekends.

Ginger Martin, a Sotheby’s broker, says the Sonoma/Napa Valley area about 90 minutes north of San Francisco is comparable to the Hamptons, calling California’s wine country a “weekend place” where affluent, big-city residents can relax in style.

And, like the Hamptons, real estate prices are lofty in Sonoma and Napa, ranging upward from about $4 million for a one-acre parcel, Martin said.

Many foreign cities also have nearby retreats that serve as their equivalent to the Hamptons. For example, Southhampton-based Michaela Keszler of real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman said wealthy residents of Munich flock to Kitzbühel in Austria near Germany’s southern border, calling it “the Hamptons of Munich.”

Alexander Kraft, chairman and CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty France-Monaco, said the Hamptons equivalent for Paris is a town called Dinard in the Brittany region of France on its northern coast. And though Dinard has more seaside villas than oversized estates, properties there have become pricier since 2000, Kraft said.

The Hamptons equivalents for other cities with affluent residents include a North Sea island called Sylt (Hamburg), a quiet town called Ojai (Los Angeles), Lake Garda (Milan), a lakeside city called Muskoka (Toronto) and the coastal community of São Sebastião (São Paulo). [Bloomberg] – Mike Seemuth