It's too hard to say exactly where you want to be when the world is filled with so much wonder, so much magic, and so much that could be magic if you just tried a bit. It may be a tad easier to say where you don't want to be even at the price of being judgey.
1. I don't want to be with people all the time and I don't want to be alone all the time. The perfect percentage varies from day to day, but I would say at the moment I'm in a 40/60 place, tending towards isolation, but I'm on a sabbatical, for God's sake. So wherever the place is, it has to have right Alone/People Mix. This social mix also involves excitement since there is a smaller tendency to get excited about things in the solitary world, while it is almost impossible not to get excited about a perfect performance or a discussion that moves the planet. So the excitement/peace ratio may be related to the Alone/People Mix. Future research is indicated.
2. The place I don't want to be doesn't have any water. While I am not too picky about the kind or quantity of water, it has to have enough for emotional impact. For a pond to offer peace, it would have to be . . . mmmm . . . 50 feet wide as a bare minimum, while a stream could be only 6 feet across if it were a happy gurgling thing. Perhaps I have not been sufficiently trained in the joys of deserts, but they are too barren for this ugly bag of mostly water.
3. The place I don't want to be is loud all the time. For whatever reason, I need to have some quiet in my life. The Airbnb we are renting in Cuba is in a lively district in Havana and is pretty loud. There is music of one kind or another in the streets until quite late and after that there are people who are having disagreements or small parties until dawn most days.
All of this is relevant because when I or someone retires, their geographic flexibility increases. Even if we stay in the same house, we may now get to choose where to be all day long. The park? The library? Out back by the pool? At some dive bar. Hmm. Dive bar: cool, quiet . . . but it would have to be by a pool! Let me know if you know of a Schenectady dive bar that has a pool.