Rapa Nui

I visited this top WHS in 2023 staying on the island for 9 nights, 10 days and renting a car. Since post-COVID there is quite an annoying rule that to visit most moai/historic sites around the island you have to be accompanied by a local guide who will be responsible for your actions, I was almost inclined to cancel my rental car reservation and just go for a couple of half or full day trips around the main sites.

Well, at least when I visited, although it is advertised everywhere that you need a local guide, in reality you just need a local with you who needs to be registered in advance. Most B&Bs, hotels and shops have enough guides to cater for all the tourists who visit the island; only the transportation is lacking and can also increase the costs or limit your changes/adaptations to the itinerary agreed with your "guide", so finally we opted for a rental car for the whole stay. With that in mind, I'm really glad we went for the good deal offered by the B&B itself for a rental car, as we were totally free to explore the island at any time of the day, go swimming in different places, go hiking in different places, go dining without the hassle of walking in muddy areas or getting stressed because of the many stray dogs around, etc.

Organizing the local guided tours with your accommodation can be much more expensive than if you …

First I was super excited and looking forward to my flight from Santiago to Hanga Roa as it would mean that I will visit the best rated WHS of this community and one of the most popular travel dream destinations of my social environment that is not easily reachable from Europe.  
 
However everything changed on the day before the flight as our contact in the hostel of Hanga Roa explained to my girlfriend and me via chat that we can not visit almost any of the main archeological sites without a guide. We were the whole afternoon super angry of this new law starting from the post-pandemic re-opening of the island in August 2022 especially when we saw that prices for a personal guide could easily reach 100 USD per person for a day (so 200 USD for two. We also didn't really understand why it's a per person price for a guide). Being on a long backpackers trip and having booked my flights that I couldn't cancel anymore one day before I felt like I had trapped in a tourist trap. Angrily we decided to make the best of our stay on this special island however and spend 500 USD more rather than being there and not make the best of these 5 special days.  
 
We were really tired when we reached the island as we woke up at 5 a.m. Santiago time or 3 a.m. Hanga Roa time. By 2 p.m. we had reached the hostel …

Rapa Nui. Easter Island. The name evokes adventure, and it was my main reason for choosing Chile as my country to visit for Leap Day 2020. I lived in Hawaii for a few years, and had visited New Zealand about ten years ago, so I was looking forward to seeing the third corner of the Polynesian Triangle -- the region of the Pacific where ancient Polynesians took to rafts and settled, forming related cultures that slowly evolved over the centuries. I pictured Rapa Nui as a Pacific paradise, a chance to once again enjoy sunsets over the Pacific while admiring artifacts of an ancient culture. My arrival was somewhat different -- three days of storms gave me clouds and wind and rough waves, but I would not have traded the experience for anything!

The moai are the main reason anyone thinks of Easter Island, and the rows of large stoic heads placed on altars known as ahus were as impressive as I'd hoped. I took a tour the first day, and the guide explained the belief that the moai represented ancestral spirits who would protect villages, which is why most moai faced inland. The old villages themselves were interesting to see, particularly the chicken coops built inside rock walls. I was interested to learn that unlike other Polynesian ancestors, those who landed on Rapa Nui did not bring pigs. What I didn't realize before arrival was that all of the moai standing upright on the island have been reconstructed, …

Like many of the people I talked to there, getting to Easter Island and seeing its Moai was something I've wanted to do since I was a child. It totally lived up to my high expectations and I had a blast.

The big question everyone asks when planning a trip: How long should you stay there. I stayed 3 nights. For me that was about perfect. I saw all the major sites and most of the lesser ones. 4 days would have been good if I'd had the time. (Keep in mind, I was *really* into it.) A week would have been too much. I was traveling solo, so that gave me the advantage to travel around pretty quickly, not having to coordinate schedules with anyone else. Here's a summary of what I was able to see and do. 

After landing, I got a quick drive through Hanga Roa by my airbnb host. I eventually rented a bicycle for the afternoon and visited my first moai, hitting close sites like Ahu Tahai. I rode the bike over the deeply rutted and eroded dirt road north to a couple of small lava tube caves, Ana Kakenga and Ana Te Pora, and a smaller ahu, Ahu Te Peu. It was a pretty nice day, but the wind was strong, which, combined with the horrible road, made riding pretty tough. While a bike was perfect for these spots, it isn't how I'd choose to tour the rest of the island. The …

I visited Rapa Nui in 2007.

The moai of Easter Island are some of the most famous and iconic sculptures on Earth.

In the ten years since I visited I have been told tourism has increased dramatically. There were no proper hotels on the island when I visited. Now there are several.

There are still only two ways to get to the island: fly from Santiago, Chile, or fly from Tahiti. There are a small number of cruise ships which stop each year, but given its remote location, few bother to make the voyage.

Read more about Rapa Nui on my website.

Oh, the costs. And the time. And the detour. And haven’t I already seen all there is via documentaries and photos? … These were my thoughts when I planned my trip to Chile and had to make up my mind if I wanted to go to the Easter Island.

But I kept looking at the whs map and this spot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean just kept on smiling at me. With some additional nudging from our community in the forum (thanks Els!), I went ahead and booked the flights. And, boy, am I glad I did, because without a doubt this is one of the great sites of mankind.

It’s not just the Moai that seem to be fallen out of time. The Moais are embedded into stunning scenery that I got to take in mostly by myself. So, if you happen to be in Santiago, hop on a plane and go.

How long?

A key question for me was to figure out how long I wanted to stay. If you go, you want to hit the main sites and not miss out. Who knows if you ever make it back ;)

I think you need at least 2,5 days (two nights, two full days) to fully appreciate the island. My itinerary looked like this:

• Arrival afternoon: Hike to Orongo.
• 1 Day – Small circle: Hike / Cycle North of Hanga Roa to Ahu Tepeu and then hike …

I have just returned from Rapanui..what an awesome experience. Their second language is Spanish. My command of the Spanish language is minimal to zero, however, I spoke Maori to the locals at the church and they were so excited as they could understand me. I said "Kia ora" One elder replied, "He Maori keo no Aotearoa?" I said "ae" I said Kei hea ta kotou Museum? the elder said "Haere koe i runga i te ara...ka huri pera, 'Indicating with his hand. "a ka Huri pera" On his instructions I found their museum.

Love their history.

It is an unfortunate fact that long-anticipated visits to “iconic” WHS can often disappoint, but ours to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) most certainly did not! This, despite the fact that we had but a mere 7 hours ashore during a trans-Pacific cruise which took us on the “Heyerdal” sea route from the Peruvian coast taking 5 days on our cruise ship and then onward into “Polynesia proper”.

However you get there, Easter Island is an expensive and logistically awkward destination – most visitors will either fly through Papeete or do Santiago return. It certainly justifies more than the short day we gave it, but we were able to take in the main sites with reasonable free time. It would of course have been nice to return at different times of day for optimal photographic conditions and to have explored the less famous locations. On arrival you have the choice of minibus tours, private taxi, rent-a-car, bicycle or walking. We took the former in the morning and then a taxi in the afternoon. As regards walking and bicycle – well, it may look a mere “speck” on the World map, but it is a bit bigger “on the ground”! The main “town” of Hanga Roa is actually a very spread out village now full of restaurants, guest houses and the accoutrements of a tourist centre – just walking around it from your guest house could take a while but there are nearby walkable sites which could be very pleasant to reach …

I visited Easter Island in April 2009 and although several of the previous writers have decried the "development for rich American tourists" (actually I heard more Spanish, understandable, and Italian) the island is still relatively undeveloped and not the golf course self contained hotel disasters one sees elsewhere. In fact the only town is Honga Roa and it retains a somewhat down at the heels but charming quality. Sure there are T-shirt shops but there are grocery stores and hardware shops too. Don't expect beautiful beaches and lush landscapes either but there are those statues.

The chief attraction are the statues or moai. I found the sites where the moai have not been re-erected to be the most interesting as one can get a better sense of the past and paradoxically what they might have looked like when standing. There is a haunting sadness to the site of a toppled, broken moai that affected me more than the standing statues, those those are certainly dramatic and not to be dismissed. Getting around requires either a tour, a four wheel drive (many of the roads are not just unpaved but little better than dirt paths) or a car with driver though I did see lots of bikes. Prices were not exorbitant. Four days at a minimum are necessary to really get a sense of the island and there are many interesting hikes and some caving. I spent one day hiking the northern coast (about six hours) where there are no roads …

I think that Easter Island is about the most intriguing place on earth. I lived on Oahu for 3 years, and the only thing that disappointed me was how it catered to American life. I would change my life in a second to live in a place that people know that money doesn't bring happiness. That you could enjoy every day you're alive because you are with your friends and family, living in the best place on earth.

I spent 2 weeks in Rapa Nui last year. the plan was to bring a tent and sleepingbag, to keep the costs down on accommodation, but amazingly it turned out cheeper to rent a room in a lady's house than to pitch my tent up on one of the camingsites.

The island is truly beautiful. The atmosphere and the hospitality amazing. The family I stayed with did their very best to look after me, show me their island and include me in their everyday activities. I couldn't have wished for anything better.

Now, the only thing that spoiled this little paradise, was the way it has been exploited to the American tourists. There is this massive hotel which has been built, where the prices are sky-high of course, and designed to cater for the "rich and comfortable". It is such a shame. Thelocals, of course, are happy for the money they can make, but it makes you wonder what the travelagents who exploit places like this think of?! The whole charm, the exotic feeling this island gives you will disappear if they try and change Rapa Nui to yet another tourist-trap.

None the less, I will definetely return to this little paradise. Just as much for the amazing scenery and magic nature as for the kind people and their culture.

Okay, so I didn't really read your site. But I didn't actually have to, I mean my dad is from Easter Island (believe it or not). So as you can probably guess I have pretty strong ways of juding someone who talks about the Island. I in no means am trying to be mean, but put yourself in my shoes. I've visited there only twice, but have had Rapa Nui in my blood all my life. You all can go to visit,and judge it the way you would like, but by all means you really have no idea what life is really like for these people. My Grandma had 17 children, most of which still remain at home on the island. I have seen so much life through these people's eyes, and they get so much pride out of so little. So when you visit and say that it seems kind of expensive, look at how the people actually live. In shacks! If this was your only way of making money was toursits, then you would do it. So before you judge these people imagine picking corn, running a bussines for very few people, or raising horses just to feed your family. You wouldn't make it one day, while these people have made it a lifetime. So don't judge, look deep in the souls of the people there. In all honesty they can teach us Americans a way of life we would never want to live or could live. But …

I spent 5 days on Easter Island - making a dream come true. Reading the books by Thor Heyerdahl as a child, I never imagined I would set foot on this remote island. But times have changed in the last 15 years: travelling around the globe has become much easier and cheaper.

As has to be expected, I didn't find a lost paradise here. It's quite an expensive destination, geared to the wealthy western traveller. But I had a fine time here. I walked, cycled and drove around the island. From ahu with or without moai to petroglyph to vulcano. Rapa Nui is an open-air museum in the best sense of the word.

The sight I probably liked best is Tongariki, the ahu with 15 moai in a row. Maybe that's because this was my reward after cycling 2,5 hours on Easter Island's roads that know no shade.