Santa Barbara. Had a thing there several years ago. Very nice. Talked to the locals about life there. Seems like a good place to retire although a bit pricey, esp. if you want to be near the beach.
We’ve discussed this at length. If we hit some mega million lottery tomorrow, we would purchase a modest home in St Martin. We even have the neighborhood picked out. We would pay expenses for friends/family to come visit rather than returning to the US ourselves.
I’ve spent a couple of vacations in Tennessee. That state is on my list for retirement.
Western Montana. Missoula, maybe Kalispell or Whitefish.
I’ll be interested in visiting Tennessee; my daughter is moving to Memphis this coming summer.
I think I would like living in Japan.
I have been to that country for about 3 hours. (Took a train out of Narita airport during a layover, walked about, then took the train back to the airport.)
The Czech Republic was also a very neat and charming place, and I was there for about 10 days, but don’t know the language 
Bamako? Seriously? We lived there for two years in luxurious style (compared to the locals), and I would never consider it. Brutally hot, mosquito-infested, reeking of sewage, dusty, nearly zero amenities (other than one vestigial French-style bakery), and the ever-present danger of malaria, dysentery and other nasty maladies. What did you see as an attraction?
I love where I live now in reality and wouldn’t move out of about a 50 mile radius under any foreseeable circumstance. In the spirit of the OP though, should moving away become necessary I would likely choose between Hawaii, Costa Rica and a smallish Caribbean island - in that order. I’m not necessarily a beach fan, but I do like warm weather.
Me, too. I still have a video of Lake Crescent on my phone! But I also love Poulsbo, a little further east and south. It’s full of Norwegians, and I’m of Norwegian descent, and I like chilly rainy weather. I felt at home there.
I spent 3 days in Helsinki over 15 years ago. In that short time, I had no less than 2 powerful personal epiphanies.
One was at the harbour, sitting on a pier, an ice cream cone in one hand and a bottle of water in the other with the sun right above my head and my feet dangling 2 meters above the Baltic Sea.
The other was at the national museum, looking at a recreation of typical Finnish classroom. For a minute, I could have sworn that I had been a schoolboy there.
I immediately felt at home in that city, and deeply so.
I only spent a day in Taormina when visiting Sicily, but felt a wonderful warmth of the people and community. Loved it.
And the small community of La Florida in the Risaralda department of Colombia was simply breathtaking. The landscape is sharply rolling hills of the most verdant greens and misty clouds dropped among the valleys in the morning.
Wilmington, North Carolina.
I went to Boston for a weekend in 2003. I’d love to live there. Between the history, the sports, and natural amenities, it just seems cool.
Provence. Or maybe Brittany. Never been there since my teenage years, but both are lovely, at least in the summer. And the winters must be way shorter than here in Sweden.
My places that meet the stated criteria are:
Williamsburg, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Milton, Delaware
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Asheville, North Carolina
Boone, North Carolina
I love coastal Maine and would love to live in a cottage by the sea like Miss Rumphius, but I’ve been up there too many times for it to fit the criterion.
Barcelona, for the food and the arctitecture and the gorgeous women.
Key West, for the booze and the gorgeous women.
Sanlucar de Barrameda, south Spain, for the sherry.
Cagliari, Sardinia.
Cefalu, Sicily.
I spent a 3-day weekend in Coeur d’Alene, I’D and absolutely loved it. I would be happy living there.
Abroad- Top of the list, Bali, just about anywhere except the south.
Puerto Vallarta, Bahamas.
Domestic–liked bits of AZ when we went to ST in 2008.
Atlanta area was interesting except for the surprisingly bad traffic, we were there for a few days at our son’s HS robotics competition.
I have a picture up of me and my mom in Lake Crescent. It represents everything I love about life – being with my mom, in water, on a beautiful day. My father doesn’t go swimming so it was a great time just her and me. 
Another vote for Sequim. I’ve visited the Olympic Peninsula about four times now and would love to live there. At a high enough elevation to avoid the Cascadia Rupture Tsunami, of course.