Was the Garden of Eden an actual place?

Yes. The Garden of Eden that is spoken of in the book of Genesis 2:8–14 is located just north of the Persian Gulf in modern-day al-Baṣrah Iraq. In Genesis 2:10–14 it reads:

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

The River Pison, in my opinion, is a reference to a river that may have dried up over time due to geological changes in the near-east. It was likely a river that emptied into the Persian Gulf.

The Gihon River is another river that likely dried up over time due to geological changes in the near-east. It also likely emptied into the Persian Gulf.

The River Hiddekel is known today as the Tigris River. It is one of the two major rivers in Iraq and it empties into the Persian Gulf.

The River Euphrates is the other major river in Iraq and it also empties into the Persian Gulf.

Here is a map of the location of the biblical Garden of Eden based on Genesis 2:10–14.

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-20eec4ae1a35db7119b17dd161f87b98