Where Was Pirates of the Caribbean Filmed? The Real Port Royal

The first Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed on the island of Saint Vincent in the Caribbean, with more scenes shot in the Tobago Cays and in Los Angeles. Port Royal was a set built at Wallilabou Bay, on Saint Vincent’s west coast, and some of it is still standing.

The sequels went further. Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End were filmed in Dominica, the Bahamas and Utah. On Stranger Tides went to Hawaii, Puerto Rico and London, and Dead Men Tell No Tales was shot in Australia.

This guide counts down the 10 Pirates of the Caribbean filming locations across all five movies, from a salt flat in Utah to the bay where Jack Sparrow first steps onto the dock.

#	Real place	Scene	Film	Can you visit?
10	Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah	Davy Jones’ Locker	At World’s End	Yes. It’s public land
9	Palos Verdes, California	Fort Charles	The Curse of the Black Pearl	The site, yes. The set is gone
8	Castillo San Cristobal, Puerto Rico	A Spanish fort	On Stranger Tides	Yes
7	Na Pali Coast, Kauai	Beaches and jungle	On Stranger Tides	See it from a boat or helicopter
6	Gold Coast and the Whitsundays, Queensland	Almost the whole film	Dead Men Tell No Tales	Yes
5	Grand Bahama and the Exumas	The ship battles and Isla Cruces	Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End	The beaches, yes. The tank, no
4	Indian River, Dominica	Tia Dalma’s bayou	Dead Man’s Chest	Yes, by rowboat
3	Hampstead Beach and Vieille Case, Dominica	Scenes from the three-way sword fight	Dead Man’s Chest	Yes
2	Petit Tabac, Tobago Cays	Jack and Elizabeth marooned	The Curse of the Black Pearl	Yes, by boat
1	Wallilabou Bay, Saint Vincent	Port Royal and Tortuga	The Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man’s Chest	Yes

The 10 Pirates of the Caribbean Filming Locations

The countdown starts in the Utah desert and ends where the first film begins, in a quiet bay on Saint Vincent.

10) Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah: Davy Jones’ Locker

The white wasteland where Jack is trapped in At World’s End is a salt flat in Utah.

In At World’s End, Jack is stuck in Davy Jones’ Locker, a flat white nowhere with the Black Pearl beached on dry ground. He talks to copies of himself until a tide of crabs carries the ship off to the sea. The crew filmed it on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, starting in August 2006.

The flats are public land off Interstate 80, near Wendover. You can drive onto the salt when it’s dry, but check for spring closures first. The shore where the Pearl slides back into the water is a different place. That was filmed on the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes in California.

9) Palos Verdes, California: Fort Charles

Port Royal’s fort was a set built on a cliff south of Los Angeles.

The fort where Norrington proposes to Elizabeth, and where Jack nearly hangs at the end, was built on a bluff in Palos Verdes. Local press at the time put the set at the old Marineland site, where the Hidalgo sets were coming down. The crew also filmed the outside of Governor Swann’s mansion on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The production came back for the sequel. Dead Man’s Chest started filming in Palos Verdes on 28 February 2005, with Will and Elizabeth’s ruined wedding in the rain. The sets were temporary and are gone. The site is now Terranea Resort, and you can walk the coastal trails.

8) Castillo San Cristobal, Puerto Rico: The Spanish Fort

On Stranger Tides used a real Spanish fort in Old San Juan.

Castillo San Cristobal is a Spanish colonial fort that guarded San Juan from attack by land. On Stranger Tides filmed there in 2010. Puerto Rico’s official tourism site lists the film, and one travel guide says the fort played Cadiz, in Spain.

Puerto Rico gave the film one more spot. At the end, Jack maroons Angelica on a tiny island with a pistol. That was Palominito, a tiny cay next to Palomino Island off Fajardo. Erosion has shrunk it, so it looks smaller than it does on screen.

7) Na Pali Coast, Kauai: On Stranger Tides

The fourth film started on Kauai, on a coastline with no road.

On Stranger Tides began filming on Kauai’s Na Pali Coast on 14 June 2010. The cast was flown by helicopter to Honopu Beach, which you can’t reach on foot. The crew also shot at the Wet Cave near Haena for the outside of the Fountain of Youth. The cave inside was a set at Pinewood Studios in England.

The production moved to Oahu in late July, where most of the work was on the Queen Anne’s Revenge at Heeia Pier. Kauai has a long film history. It also played Isla Nublar in Jurassic Park.

6) Queensland, Australia: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The fifth film was shot almost entirely in Queensland, Australia.

Dead Men Tell No Tales moved the main shoot to Australia. The crew worked out of Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, built a village set at Maudsland and shot water scenes around The Spit and Raby Bay. Australia redirected US$20 million in incentives to bring it there.

The Caribbean beaches you see are in the Whitsundays, at Whitehaven Beach and Haslewood Island. The crew chartered local tour boats to keep tourists out of shot, and Whitehaven is on screen only briefly. Boats, seaplanes and helicopters go to Whitehaven from Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island.

5) Grand Bahama and the Exumas: The Ship Battles and Isla Cruces

The big ship scenes in Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End were shot in a giant tank in the Bahamas.

The two sequels were filmed back to back, and they needed a lot of open water. Gold Rock Creek, a film studio on Grand Bahama, built a huge tank on the coast for them. It was billed as the biggest open-water tank in the western hemisphere. It still wasn’t quite finished when the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman started filming there in September 2005. Hurricane season forced breaks, and Hurricane Wilma damaged the pumps.

The beach where Jack, Will and Norrington fight over the chest on Isla Cruces is in two places. The start and end of that battle were filmed on White Cay in the Exumas. More of it was filmed in Dominica, at number 3.

4) Indian River, Dominica: Tia Dalma’s Bayou

The river Jack’s crew rows up to find Tia Dalma is a real river in Dominica.

In Dead Man’s Chest, the crew rows up a swampy river to ask Tia Dalma for help. The river is the Indian River in Dominica, near the town of Portsmouth. A shack was built on the river, and boatmen still point out what is left of it. The shack interior and a matching bayou set were built at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

Only rowboats are allowed on the river, and licensed guides take you up from the mouth in about 1.5 to 2 hours, with a stop at a bush bar. Hurricane Maria stripped the trees in 2017, but the river reopened in 2018.

3) Hampstead Beach and Vieille Case, Dominica: The Sword Fight on Isla Cruces

Dominica’s wild north coast played part of Isla Cruces, where the three-way sword fight happens.

Gore Verbinski chose Dominica for its sense of remoteness. The crew spent about six weeks there in 2005, with the Black Pearl anchored in Prince Rupert Bay. Hampstead Beach was used for scenes of the three-way sword fight between Jack, Will and Norrington. Other parts of the fight were filmed in the Bahamas. Vieille Case, a village at the north tip of the island, provided the ruined church and mill.

The cannibal island came from Dominica too. The Pelegosto village was a set built south of Roseau, and more of the island scenes were shot in Morne Trois Pitons National Park, a World Heritage Site. Hurricane Maria hit Dominica in 2017, but its beaches and parks have reopened.

2) Petit Tabac, Tobago Cays: Marooned With the Rum

The island where Barbossa leaves Jack and Elizabeth is a tiny cay in the Grenadines.

Barbossa maroons Jack and Elizabeth on a speck of an island, and Elizabeth burns the rum to make a fire big enough for the navy to see. That island is Petit Tabac, one of five uninhabited cays in the Tobago Cays Marine Park. It’s the only one that sits outside Horseshoe Reef.

You can only get there by boat, on a day trip or water taxi from Union Island, Mayreau or Bequia, or on your own yacht. The park charges a small daily fee, about EC$10 per person. Hurricane Beryl hit the Grenadines in July 2024, so the island may not look exactly like it does on screen.

1) Wallilabou Bay, Saint Vincent: Port Royal and Tortuga

The real Port Royal of the movies is a quiet bay on Saint Vincent, and part of the set is still there.

The filmmakers picked Saint Vincent because it had the quietest beach they could find. At Wallilabou Bay they built three piers and a backlot for both Port Royal and Tortuga. It’s where Jack sails in on a sinking boat, steps off the mast onto the dock and passes the hanged pirates on the rock at the mouth of the bay. The Lady Washington, which played the Interceptor, sailed from Los Angeles to reach it in January 2003.

The crew came back for Dead Man’s Chest and used the sets again. Today the Wallilabou Anchorage, a restaurant, bar and small hotel, sits on the set, with old props, coffins and life-size Jack Sparrows. The parts on private land are mostly intact, and the parts on public land are gone. The government announced a Pirates park here in 2024, but there’s no sign it has opened.

Where Was Each Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Filmed?

Each film went somewhere new. Here’s where each Pirates of the Caribbean movie was filmed.

• The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003): Saint Vincent and the Tobago Cays, Palos Verdes, and studio sets in Los Angeles. Filmed from 9 October 2002 to 7 March 2003.
• Dead Man’s Chest (2006): Palos Verdes, Saint Vincent, Dominica, Grand Bahama and the Exumas, and Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.
• At World’s End (2007): Part of it was shot with Dead Man’s Chest. Then Utah, a hangar in Palmdale for the final battle in the maelstrom, and Molokai, where filming ended on 12 December 2006.
• On Stranger Tides (2011): Kauai and Oahu, Puerto Rico, London, Kent and Pinewood Studios. Filmed from 14 June to 18 November 2010.
• Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017): Queensland, Australia, with extra scenes shot in Vancouver in 2016.

The Caribbean got less screen time as the series went on. By the fifth film, the Caribbean was a beach in Australia.

How Pirates of the Caribbean Was Filmed

Pirates of the Caribbean started as a theme park ride and became one of Disney’s biggest film series.

• The ride: Pirates of the Caribbean opened at Disneyland on 18 March 1967. It was the last ride Walt Disney oversaw himself, and it opened about three months after he died. See what else Disney owns.
• The ships: The Interceptor was the Lady Washington, a working replica brig from Washington State. The Black Pearl for the first film was built on a barge. For the sequels, the crew built a 130-foot wooden Black Pearl around a steel supply ship in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.
• The sea: Because the ships were built on docks and barges, only six days were spent on the open sea for the Black Pearl and Interceptor battle.
• The Oscars: The first film got five nominations, including Best Actor for Johnny Depp, and won none. Dead Man’s Chest won for Visual Effects.

The five films made about $4.5 billion worldwide. Dead Man’s Chest was the first to pass $1 billion, and On Stranger Tides did it too. It also cost the most, with a net budget of about $378.5 million.

How to Visit the Pirates of the Caribbean Locations

The easiest trip is Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where you can see Port Royal and the marooning island in two days.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

1. Fly into Argyle International Airport on Saint Vincent.
2. Drive or take a minibus up the Leeward Highway from Kingstown to Wallilabou Bay, about 40 minutes to an hour. Have lunch at the Wallilabou Anchorage among the props.
3. Take a boat from Union Island, Mayreau or Bequia to the Tobago Cays. Pay the park fee and swim off Petit Tabac.

Dominica. Book a rowboat tour of the Indian River from Portsmouth, then drive to Hampstead Beach on the northeast coast.

The sequels. Bonneville is off Interstate 80 near the Utah and Nevada border. Castillo San Cristobal is in Old San Juan. On Kauai, see Honopu from a boat or helicopter tour. In Australia, take a boat to Whitehaven Beach from Airlie Beach.

More Pirates of the Caribbean Filming Locations

Place	Scene	Film
Walt Disney Studios, Burbank	Tia Dalma’s shack inside, ship interiors	Dead Man’s Chest, At World’s End
Universal Studios backlot, Los Angeles	Singapore, and the mermaid attack at Whitecap Bay	At World’s End, On Stranger Tides
A hangar in Palmdale, California	The battle in the maelstrom	At World’s End
Molokai, Hawaii	The last day of filming, 12 December 2006	At World’s End
Heeia Pier, Oahu	Scenes aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge	On Stranger Tides
Hampton Court Palace, London	The royal palace courtyards	On Stranger Tides
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich	The London streets of Jack’s escape	On Stranger Tides
Knole, Kent	The courtyard with the gallows for Gibbs	On Stranger Tides
Pinewood Studios, England	The palace, the pub and the Fountain of Youth cave	On Stranger Tides
Palominito, Puerto Rico	Jack maroons Angelica	On Stranger Tides

FAQs About Where Pirates of the Caribbean Was Filmed

The Final Cut on Where Pirates of the Caribbean Was Filmed

So where was Pirates of the Caribbean filmed? The first film was shot in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, with Port Royal at Wallilabou Bay and the rum island at Petit Tabac. The sequels went to Dominica, the Bahamas, Utah, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, England and Australia.

The best trip is still the first one. Wallilabou has the props, and the Tobago Cays have the beach.

Which Pirates of the Caribbean location would you visit first?

For more, read about anti-heroes like Jack Sparrow, see where Jurassic Park was filmed, or browse all our film locations.