 |
| Where Was Love of Your Life Filmed? All 2026 Movie Shooting Locations Revealed. |
Love of Your Life was filmed across a striking mix of Portugal and the United States, with the locations following Maya from her tightly controlled life in Boston to the wide-open landscapes of Portugal before bringing her story back to America. The 2026 romantic drama, directed by Rachel Morrison and written by Julia Cox, uses real streets, beaches, historic buildings and neighbourhoods rather than relying entirely on studio environments. That makes the film’s changing scenery feel closely tied to Maya’s emotional journey — and gives viewers plenty of real places to put on a travel list.
The film was shot over roughly 40 days between August and October 2025, with production officially wrapping on October 26. The final days included filming in New Orleans from October 22 to October 24. Not every precise filming spot from a production is necessarily made public while cameras are rolling, which is understandable when a busy location needs to remain usable for the cast and crew without becoming a tourist attraction halfway through filming. So, while the locations below provide a strong picture of where Love of Your Life was made, they should not be treated as an exhaustive production map.
The story begins in Boston, Massachusetts, where Margaret Qualley’s Maya works as an emergency-room nurse. Boston provides the visual foundation for the first part of the film, before Maya's life changes dramatically through her relationship with Charlie, played by Gabriel Basso. The city’s urban brownstone streets are used to establish the more grounded side of her life, giving the early scenes a distinctly residential New England character.
The Boston brownstone streets are particularly important because they contrast with the international settings that arrive later. Maya initially has a relatively contained existence, built around hospital shifts, home life and her relationship. The narrow historic streets therefore suit the story rather well. They also give the film a more intimate scale before the narrative suddenly becomes much larger geographically. It is basically Boston doing its job as the sensible friend before Maya decides to pack two suitcases and disappear.
For a Boston location with a similar historic atmosphere, the older residential streets around the city’s brownstone neighbourhoods fit naturally into the visual world established by the film. They reinforce the contrast between Maya's former life and the much more unpredictable journey that follows, although the production information supplied does not identify individual Boston streets by name.
From Boston, Love of Your Life moves into a very different visual world in Lisbon, Portugal. The Portuguese capital becomes one of the film’s most important locations as Maya begins her life as a digital nomad. Instead of presenting travel as a glossy holiday montage, the setting reflects her attempt to outrun a past she has not emotionally dealt with.
One of the clearest locations is Alfama, Lisbon’s historic hillside neighbourhood. Its steep streets, colourful buildings and traditional urban character provide a natural backdrop for Maya’s movement through the city. The neighbourhood is especially suited to the film because its streets can feel both intimate and constantly changing, which mirrors Maya’s uncertain state of mind.
Filming also took place on Rua de São Domingos, around the Rua do Sacramento a Lapa intersection in Lisbon’s historic Lapa district. The area features in exterior scenes involving Maya walking through the city, including shots incorporating Lisbon’s famous yellow trams. It is the sort of location that needs very little help from a production designer because the city has already done most of the work.
The Lapa district adds another layer to the Lisbon portion of the film. Its historic streets and architecture help make Maya’s escape feel like a genuine change of environment rather than simply another location change on a screenplay. She is physically moving away from Boston, but the film keeps reminding us that changing streets does not necessarily mean changing what is happening inside your head.
Another Portuguese filming location is Alcochete, on the southern side of the Tagus Estuary opposite Lisbon. The production used Largo da República, the town’s main square, for festival and celebration sequences involving Maya and Felix, played by Aaron Pierre. The whitewashed setting gives these scenes a noticeably different character from the dense streets of Lisbon.
Largo da República also works as an interesting transition point for Maya and Felix. The location allows the film to move away from the solitary rhythm of her travels and towards moments where she begins forming a meaningful connection with another person. There is a little irony here: Maya travels halfway around the world trying to escape emotional baggage, only to discover that apparently baggage has excellent international travel privileges.
The production then headed south towards the Algarve, where the film opens up visually through its coastal landscapes. Locations around Lagoa and Portimão provide some of the movie’s most expansive scenery, with golden cliffs, beaches and swimming sequences replacing the tighter urban environments seen earlier.
One of the major Algarve locations is Praia da Marinha, also known as Marinha Beach, in Lagoa. The beach is used for romantic sequences involving Maya and Felix, giving the relationship a much more open setting than Maya’s earlier scenes in Boston and Lisbon. Its coastal landscape helps underline the film’s visual transition from confinement towards the possibility of something new.
The production also filmed at Praia do Buraco in Portimão, another coastal setting used for the film’s more secluded beach material. The location contributes to the quieter side of Maya’s time in Portugal, where the story has more room to focus on her developing relationship and gradual emotional recovery.
The Algarve locations are particularly effective because they do not simply make the film look attractive. They serve a clear storytelling purpose. Boston represents the life Maya knew, Lisbon represents escape and movement, while the Algarve gives the character physical space to slow down. The geography essentially becomes part of the character development, which is considerably more useful than throwing in a pretty beach just because the camera operator deserves a holiday.
The story eventually moves back across the Atlantic to New Orleans, Louisiana, where the film takes on another visual identity. Production used real locations across the city for key sequences, including The Columns Hotel in the Uptown district.
The Columns Hotel on St. Charles Avenue is one of the most recognisable named locations supplied for the production. The historic venue is used for intimate dramatic scenes involving Maya and her old college friend Jason, played by Patrick Schwarzenegger. Those scenes are important because Maya can no longer simply keep travelling; she has to begin confronting the relationships and consequences she left behind.
The hotel setting also gives the New Orleans portion of the movie a warmer, more character-driven atmosphere. After spending much of the story moving between countries, Maya is suddenly forced into a more personal reckoning. The location consequently feels less like another stop on a travel itinerary and more like a place where unfinished business catches up with her.
The production also filmed in New Orleans’ Bywater neighbourhood, using its colourful streets for pedestrian tracking shots and establishing material. The area provides a sharp visual contrast with Boston’s more restrained residential environment and the clinical atmosphere associated with Maya’s former work.
Bywater’s street character gives the New Orleans sequences a sense of movement without requiring the story to become overly grand. Maya is still walking, travelling and observing her surroundings, but by this point the journey is less about running away and more about returning to the parts of her life she abandoned.
Taken together, the Boston, Lisbon, Alcochete, Algarve and New Orleans locations create a surprisingly coherent visual route through Love of Your Life. The film begins with Maya in a familiar, tightly structured environment, sends her through European cities and coastal landscapes, and eventually brings her back to the United States. The locations therefore do more than provide scenery: they track the character's emotional movement almost as carefully as the screenplay does.
Rachel Morrison’s visual approach reinforces that idea. The film was shot entirely on location rather than being built around studio soundstages, while Morrison operated handheld camera rigs alongside co-cinematographer Todd Banhazl. That approach helps explain why the different cities and landscapes can feel immediate rather than overly polished. The camera is allowed to move with Maya instead of simply presenting each location like a postcard.
My take is that Love of Your Life has chosen its filming locations intelligently, particularly because the places change as dramatically as Maya does. Lisbon and the Algarve could easily have been reduced to generic romantic backdrops, but the production gives them different purposes. Alfama feels restless and urban, Alcochete introduces community and connection, while Praia da Marinha and Praia do Buraco provide the openness that Maya seems to be searching for.
Then New Orleans brings the story back down to earth. Boston, meanwhile, remains important precisely because it represents everything Maya thought she had left behind. The result is a travel-heavy movie where the scenery actually earns its screen time. And yes, some of these locations would make an excellent holiday itinerary even without a movie camera following you around. Just remember that recreating Maya’s emotional journey is considerably less advisable than recreating her travel route.
For viewers planning their own Love of Your Life filming locations trip, several of the places identified above can be visited by the public, including Lisbon’s historic areas, Largo da República, Praia da Marinha, Praia do Buraco, The Columns Hotel and New Orleans’ Bywater district. Still, filming access and public access are two different things, so visitors should always respect private areas, businesses and local restrictions rather than assuming a movie location is automatically open for exploration.
These are the currently identified Love of Your Life (2026) filming locations, but productions rarely reveal every precise camera position or filming day, particularly while production is still taking place. As additional official location information becomes available, the picture of Maya’s journey can become even more complete. Which Love of Your Life location would you most want to visit — Lisbon, the Algarve, New Orleans or Boston? Tell us which one belongs on your travel bucket list.