Canada to Colombia: Adventuring to the Pirate Hot Spots of the Past

Whenever you embark on your travels – be it an exploration of the green spaces Everyday Tourist has found in Calgary or to a land that uses a different alphabet – you’ll want a key selling point to inspire you to make the most of your time away. While it’ll certainly come across as a niche vacation theme, you’d be surprised how fun and exotic an adventure to the hot spots of the bygone era of pirating is right now.

Sure, you won’t see massive ships approaching the shore with the Jolly Roger raised, nor will you spot navies and renegade ships running side by side to fire all of their cannons, but the legacy left by pirates is certainly one that can still be enjoyed today. You can be inspired by just about any corner of pop culture, or even just trust that these savvy outlaws knew the best ways to hide and relax away from the rigours of the Seven Seas.

Pirate tales told across all entertainment

Without a doubt, pirates will never fail to titillate modern audiences – even if, at the time, they were mostly loathed sea-faring criminals and little more. Pirates took destiny into their own hands, were on the run as even the open ocean became ruled by monarchs and policed by armies, and good ones would always benefit from the lawlessness by reaping gold, treasures, and even mightier ships.

Given the secretive nature of pirates beyond the raids, many myths and tales circulated about them, inspiring great works of fiction. Easily the best-known is Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, which has earned itself a special Puffin Classics edition on the Penguin shop. It tells the tale of the pursuit of the mythical, riches-laden island smuggled away by a notorious pirate. For a more modern story, you could turn to Michael Crichton (writer of Jurassic Park) and his book Pirate Latitudes, or The Buccaneer King, which delves into the knighted Captain Henry Morgan.

The ties to finding and collecting the riches are the most powerful theme of pirate stories, be it for the greed of the criminals or just being savvy in an incredibly dangerous profession. Still, it’s the treasure chests, hidden islands, and looting that lend pirates so well to online casino entertainment. At Betway, Adventures of Captain Blackjack and Adventures of Doubloon Island continue to rank among the top games. These slots set players on quests to recover pirate riches while playing as the captain of the story.

Of course, many modern entertainment seekers will have enjoyed their encounters with pirates on the big and small screen. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has earned over $4.5 billion worldwide across five movies. On TV, you could check out the prequel tale to Treasure Island, Black Sails, which concluded in 2017 on Starz, or the very well-received Our Flag Means Death from David Jenkins, Rhys Darby, and Taika Waititi, which is a comedic spin on a tale akin to that of Captain Henry Morgan.

Using the pirate’s life as an inspiration to explore the world

Now that you’ve explored a range of ways to inspire your trip, it’s time to delve into the best places to visit. A great place that we’ve covered in our Global Trekking section is Cartagena. Founded in 1533 by the Spanish, the area is loaded with forts that were specifically built to help repel pirates as they became particularly fond of the Colombia settlement. You can see the massive fort of Castillo San Felipe to the Boca Chica to experience what it took to try to stop the plundering.

Easily the prime destination for some pirate heritage, however, is Port Royal. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the harbour in Jamaica served as the ultimate safe haven for pirates and all manner of other professionals who would otherwise be deemed criminals in the “civilized” world. The governors made a deal with the swashbucklers that if they protected the land from the Spanish, the pirates could do as they pleased on land.  

Much closer to home, if your home is Canada, you can also experience an old pirate hotspot by taking the three-hour drive down from the Christ Church Cathedral in Fredericton to Nova Scotia. Not as famed as the activity around the island collective of the Caribbean, Nova Scotia offered an ideal launch pad for raids down to the south amidst wars between the British, French, Spanish, and eventually the Americans. You can even visit Pirate Harbour here, which was named for the likes of Captain Kidd using the small area to anchor their ships.

If you’re clamouring for a reason to venture to iconic islands in the Caribbean, venture to the coast of South America, or even dip across to Nova Scotia, doing so to explore pirate history is as good of a purpose as any.