20/03/2026
Lifestyle
How does where you live shape how you see the world? That’s the question we asked global affiliates and local creatives based in some of the most beautiful locations on the planet—what are the places that spark inspiration?
Mike Corey is a producer and author based in Los Angeles, California
In L.A. you can spend hours in eight lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper. So it’s great to be able to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, a two-lane road, without a care. The views are gorgeous. If you’re traveling north towards San Francisco, you have ocean to the left, mountains to the right.
There’s a specific spot which I love, a classic motorlodge, just outside Carmel on the Big Sur coastline. You can sit on the balcony, overlooking the ocean with the cliffs dropping away below you. At night, there’s no light pollution, the moon picks up the wave tops and you can hear them crashing on the rocks below. You forget everything, you can live in the moment.
I grew up in the Midwest, which is very flat and has a lot of farmland. It blew me away when I came to California that there was land that had no other purpose than to be spectacular. It’s just beautiful.
Tom Lindner is a broker at Svoboda & Williams Christie’s International Real Estate in Prague
My family came from Czechia, so Prague was almost a legendary city to me. I grew up in Kansas in the United States, and didn’t visit until about three years ago when I passed through for the day and met my now-fiancée. Within six months, I was living here full-time and I still have to pinch myself. It’s just magical.
I love to go up to Letná Park, which has a hill from which you can see out over the whole of the Old Town, the Vltava River, and the Charles Bridge. One of my favorite things here is all the spires. Prague is known as the Golden City of One Hundred Spires, and you can see why from Letná Park. I can look down over the landscape and think about all the thousands of hours it took to create those buildings and their architectural detailing. I get a sense of the huge sweep of history within the city.
Carrie McCormick is a broker at @properties Christie’s International Real Estate in Chicago
There are few sights to inspire wonder and awe at human ingenuity like a soaring city skyline, the brick-and-mortar jungle so many of us call home. Fewer still quicken the pulse quite as much as Chicago, with its characterful mix of heritage and new architecture piercing the air, and the waters of Lake Michigan sparkling beyond.
The view looking up from street level is dizzying, but seen from up in the sky it takes on a whole new dimension, and it’s never more impressive than glimpsed from the penthouse in Park Tower on North Michigan Avenue. The vast 15-room apartment spans the entire 64th floor, and as you move through its grand interiors, expansive views of the city unfold through its floor-to-ceiling windows. And while the streets below are abuzz with noise and action, up here all is peaceful, allowing you to sit back and drink it all in.
René Niederer is a photographer in Urnäsch
I first discovered this view in 2021. It’s just very beautiful, very picturesque. It’s always different no matter how often I go. It makes me feel at peace.
The peak in the background is Säntis, one of the most impressive mountains in eastern Switzerland, and the whole atmosphere at this place is so Swiss. There are the mountains, forest, and a little Swiss cottage. You can hear cow bells, and in the holidays, some local farmers still wear traditional clothes. It feels timeless.
Auburn Lucas is co-owner of Christie’s International Real Estate Dominican Republic
One of the things I love about the Dominican Republic is that the island has so much to offer. Every part has stunning views but, if I were forced to choose, I would say the northern coast is the most beautiful. It is very lush, full of green mountains, very serene—it’s where you go to connect with nature. It’s very untapped, a place to escape to.
Sofia Minson is an artist living in Northland, North Island
We’re spoiled for choice for views in New Zealand, but the one that I am continuously drawn to is Aoraki, on the South Island. It’s our biggest mountain. Aoraki sits on the shores of Lake Pukaki, which has water that is an incredible milky blue—you look at that then you see this huge mountain emerging from it.
What’s so inspiring about it is that it has different moods. You get a very mysterious Lord of the Rings quality when the clouds come swirling down. Other times, you get brilliant clear days when the snow and water sparkle. It’s stunning to witness.
I grew up on the North Island, far away from Aoraki, and I spent time on the coast admiring the ocean. But Aoraki almost gives me an out-of-body feeling it’s so beautiful. It deepens my links with my heritage—my Māori ancestors are from the East Cape of the North Island. In the Māori worldview, a mountain is one of the most sacred places, where land meets the heavens, where the gods meet us humans.
I started painting Aoraki as a teenager, long before I ever visited it, copying it from postcards. I always wanted to include it in my art. It has a shocking beauty.
Ruth Druart is an author based in Paris, France, whose books include While Paris Slept
My son has an apartment just off Place des Vosges, the oldest square in Paris. From the tiny balcony I can see not only Place des Vosges, but also the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Sacré-Coeur. Looking out over the rooftops, I’ve often imagined Victor Hugo, whose apartment was on this square, strolling through the gardens, wandering under the arches, and talking to friends in front of the fountain. It provided the inspiration for my second novel, The Last Hours in Paris. I imagined the square through the eyes of the protagonist, Sebastian, a German soldier, and part of the occupying force during World War II.
Paris filled me with a longing to write, and the writing groups who meet in cafes provided me with a network of like-minded people. I think Victor Hugo would recognize the square and streets now. They haven’t changed—the only difference is the people who walk them.
Marty Frank is the founder of Christie’s International Real Estate, Summit in Breckenridge, Colorado
I grew up in Colorado, but it wasn’t until I was 19—driving past Lake Dillon—that I understood the power of this landscape. The way the sun caught the water, with the mountains rising behind it, stopped me in my tracks. Even now, I’m continually struck by how much beauty exists here.
My office is in Breckenridge, a place known for its world-class skiing—but what I love most is what reveals itself beyond the seasons. When the snow melts, a road winds up to the top of the ski mountain, opening to panoramic views of the valley and surrounding peaks. In the evenings, shadows stretch across the slopes, clouds drift past, and time seems to slow.
The first time I drove up there was 25 years ago with my wife. We passed deer and a fox family before reaching the summit—wild and breathtaking. As the sun set, she said, “This is so beautiful, I feel like you brought me here to give me jewelry.”
It reminds you why people don’t just visit Colorado—they choose to live here.
Corso Baccheschi Berti is the owner of Castello di Vicarello, a hotel in Tuscany, Italy
The view closest to my heart is the one that is closest to home. My parents bought this medieval castle in the 1970s and I joke with my guests that we have been renovating for 50 years. We moved into one section in the 1990s when I was four or five, so I have grown up with these surroundings and this wonderful view.
From Castello di Vicarello, you look out on our olive groves and vineyards, the forests and the Ombrone River. On a clear day, you can see for miles from Marina di Grosseto and the island of Elba on the coast to the hill town of Seggiano. It’s stunning: simple, peaceful, and meditative.
To me, it’s always felt like a safe haven—the area is very sparsely populated and the surroundings haven’t changed. When my parents bought the estate, all the land was very run down, so when I look at the landscape now I know how much work has gone into it. But if you give time to something, with devotion and passion, this view reminds me what can be achieved.
With more than 400 golf courses, South Carolina is a state that loves the sport. But even by South Carolinian standards, the Cliffs at Glassy course is special: at 3,000 feet (914 m) on Glassy Mountain, it is one of the most spectacular in the country. Completed in 1993, it’s surrounded by forest and plunging slopes, making some of its holes literal cliffhangers.
Where golfers go, housebuilders follow. An extensive, country-club-style, gated community has grown up around the course—one of seven in the area known as the Cliffs—and one of its most covetable homes is now for sale. Drive onto the forecourt of the property on Cliffs Parkway and you are met by an impressive home. It is at the rear of the property, however, that the magic happens.
“When you get around the back, the views just drop away in front of you,” says Damian Hall of Blackstream Christie’s International Real Estate, who is marketing the property. “It is absolutely incredible.”
Described as the place “where the sky kisses the mountains,” this is not simply marketing hyperbole. The views from this house are a breathtaking 75-mile (121 km) sweep that takes in the Blue Ridge Mountains in all their staggering, hazy beauty. The lights of the town of Greer, about 25 miles (40 km) away, on the outskirts of Greenville, are visible at night, twinkling in the distance. Neighboring properties are discreetly screened by foliage, but a few hundred yards away on a cliff is a picture-perfect chapel, which only adds to the charm of the outlook.
The house, as you would expect, makes the most of the stunning panorama. The living area features picture windows along the rear elevation, some of them double height, which seem to bring the mountains into the room. A grand staircase and gallery emphasize the soaring ceilings. Five bedrooms include an enormous main-level primary suite, again with those amazing views. The pool is ideally situated on a terrace that overlooks the panorama, and there are endless opportunities to walk around the various lookout points within the property’s 3.5 acres (1.4 ha).
A large part of the attraction of the Cliffs communities is their emphasis on wellness. Each one has a golf course, a fitness center, tennis and pickleball courts, and a network of beautiful hiking trails, while there are three that lie right next to a lake for freshwater swimming, boating, paddleboarding, and more (the seven communities here are all accessible to residents). These facilities, paired with the Cliffs’ mild climate, mean they have attracted active snowbirds, successful businesspeople from the Carolinas and Georgia who want some clear mountain air, and, increasingly, people from the northeast and Midwest who are looking for a second home. But the owners of this house know what will sell their property, wherever the buyer comes from.
“When the current owners saw the house for the first time, they bought it in three days,” says Hall. “They said, ‘Damian, walk whoever comes to see it outside. They’ll want to buy it.’”
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