How to Plan a Pirate Themed Vacation
Want to try something different for your next trip? Try a pirate themed vacation. There's no finer way to learn about history while enjoying some of the most beautiful scenery the planet has to offer. This is one vacation both children and adults will love. Here are some location suggestions to get you started.
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Instructions
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Get as close as you can to the island of Tortuga off of the north Haitian coast. The rocky north shore of the island is uninhabited to this day. Back in the 1640's, the buccaneers of Tortuga started calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast. Captain Henry Morgan used the island as his base in the 1670's, and L'Olonaise, another notorious pirate, often sailed with him from Tortuga. It continued to be a pirate stronghold until the 1720's.
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Head to Madagascar, which served as home base for the pirates preying on the trade routes of the Indian Ocean and the ships crossing the Cape of Good Hope. Pirates settled in here between the 1690's and 1720's, among them Thomas Tew, Henry Every and William Kidd.
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Visit the Jamaican town of Port Royal, once considered the "Richest and Wickedest City on Earth". This is where privateers like Christopher Myngs holed up when they weren't attacking the Spanish fleet on behalf of the King of England. Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, also came by often, as did Captain Henry Morgan.
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Set sail for Nassau in the Bahamas. Situated on the island of New Providence, this pirate heaven had it all: a harbor too shallow to accommodate warships, lots of timber and water, plentiful food, and proximity to major trade routes. Blackbeard, Henry Jennings, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane and Samuel Bellamy all plied their trade nearby.
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Drop anchor in the Virgin Islands. Blackbeard and Bluebeard's castles now overlook the harbor in St. Thomas (they have both been converted to hotels with restaurants). Sir Francis Drake, Henry Morgan and Captain Kidd all left their mark on this island chain about 1,100 miles southeast of Miami.
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Make your way to Pirate Soul in Key West, Florida. Located on the corner of Front and Simonton, they claim to have the largest collection of genuine pirate artifacts in the world. Blackbeard's blunderbuss and Tew's treasure chest are some of the sights waiting for you here. Special exhibits highlight the exploits of Mary Read, Anne Bonny and the scourge of the Florida Keys, Black Caesar.
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Follow in the steps of Jean Lafitte, the gentleman pirate of New Orleans. He led a gang of privateers who preyed on the British (never the Americans), and supposedly owned a blacksmith's shop on Bourbon Street. Check out Pirate's Alley in downtown New Orleans after dark, and you just might see his ghost on the prowl.
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Tips & Warnings
Many Madagascar pirates took more than one wife, and produced lots of children with the native women. They had so many descendants that they became an ethnic group called the Zana-Malata.
St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John in the Virgin Islands are all part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Other islands in the chain are British territory, so you will need a passport to visit them.
Be careful if you wish to travel to Tortuga itself. Haiti suffers from frequent outbursts of civil unrest, and the political situation is often dangerous. You might want to consider taking a cruise that goes close by the island instead.
