Does php have an equivalent to python's virtualenv or ruby's sandbox?

Assuming that you are using mod_php, there is no way to load multiple different versions into the same Apache instance. You can run multiple different versions if you're running PHP as CGI or FastCGI, but this will itself introduce some differences in behavior from mod_php.

Another alternative to virtual machines is docker.

As loading different versions of php within apache with mod_php seems not to be posible, the easiest way of mimicking deployment and development setups will be with a virtualmachine, which you stated you would like to avoid.

One way of making the burden of vm's for developers a bit easier is to use something like vagrant. With two files (the vagrant file, and the chef/puppet file) you can "version" your vm's, easily create them and destroy them for each project and when needed.