Pirate Festival in L’Estartit Spain

Travel Destinations

We recently took a trip to Costa Brava to see some of what the region has on offer. One of the great things about visiting when we did, at the end of September was that it’s the time of the annual the Pirate Festival in L’Estartit Spain.

Pirates of the Catalonia – visiting the Pirate Festival in L’Estartit Spain

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This is such a fun time to visit the town as it gets completely decked out in the pirate look. Even the streets were dressed up with flags and clothing.

Pirate Festival in L'Estartit Spain - Pirates of Catalonia

History of pirates in the Costa Brava

The festival remembers a time when this coastline of Spain was regularly attacked by pirates coming over from North Africa in the 16th Century.

The alarm would ring out and people would take their belongings to two towers on either side of the town. Barricading themselves in for safety.

The Medes Islands, just off the coast were also regularly raided.

Today these are major conservation areas. And you can only step foot on the islands once a year for the festival.

Traveling to the Medes Islands during the Pirate Festival in L’Estartit Spain

We took a boat trip on the El Corsari Negre to travel around the Medes islands.

Pirate Festival in L'Estartit Spain - Pirates of Catalonia

It was hard to imagine how terrifying these attacks must have been on the beautifully sunny day we visited with calm seas.

Visiting the Medes Islands

Pirate shows in town

Back in the town, there is the main square which has pirate shows. Even though these are in Spanish our children loved watching all of the action.

Pirate show in L'Estartit

Buying pirate goods

Throughout the town there are stalls selling everything from pirate crafts.

Pirate Festival in L'Estartit Spain - Pirates of Catalonia

There were even pirate themed mojitos.

Pirate themed mojitos

We loved that there are lots of play areas for children too, again all with the pirate look.

Play area in L'Estartit

This was such a fun place to visit at this time. Everyone really got into the spirit of the occasion, dressing up and with flags everywhere.

It’s a great time of year to visit too as the main tourists have left but the weather is still warm. We loved it.

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