NaNoWriMo Support Group discussion

I'm trying to write a story. Nothing crazy, no grandiose opus. Just a story to see if I enjoy it. Now I've got an idea but im struggling with some details. I want to set it in a research lab, with a few sub levels, once the story is in the labs im ok. But where do I put the lab. I keep circling back to an island off the coast as I can keep the story isolated and not worry about interference from side characters. But can't figure out if I use a real island of base mine of a fictitious one?

When other folk write do you use real world places or make fuzzy replicas?

Just curious to hear your views.

Oh Wow, this is an old post. But for some reason, it just now showed up on my feed as a new comment. lol Oh well, if you are still thinking about this all this time later or are still curious about comments/thoughts, here's mine for you:

It depends on the story and the author. You can use fuzzy replicas, just be sure to mention, somewhere, in your blurb, that these are not exact. Because, unfortunately, there are people out there who will grill you and rate you as not knowing what you're talking about, or they will say things like: "...Didn't do their research very well...." I've seen it time and time again.
Whatever you decide to do, Good Luck!!