My wife (Reva) is a saint when it comes to going along with the crazy places and things, I drag her to.  So, when I asked her if there was any place, she would like to visit and she said Easter Island, I immediately began planning.  Now Reva didn’t know it but she had really had given me a challenge.  Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is one of the most remote tourist locations to travel to and there are very limited ways to get there….at least without spending a ton of money. 

Mow I realized that this was going to be expensive, but the question was how expensive and how do you actually plan a visit?

I found three potential (reasonable) ways to visit: cruise, take a tour or go independently.

FYI, Easter Island is a dependency of Chile.  There are direct flights daily from Santiago and infrequent flights from Tahiti. 

The first thing I checked into were cruises.  Cruise ships sporadically make a stop on the island as part of a repositioning or world cruise.  Additionally, there are some high-end cruise lines that stop more frequently but at a very high cost.  MSC, Princess and Holland all had itineraries that stopped for a day at the Island on one to two-month itineraries, these usually involved travel to Australia or Europe and returning from South America.  Not very appealing and certainly expensive.  We also didn’t want to tie up months just to spend a day on the Island.  The next option was a Tour.  Exoticca has become our go to tour company and they do offer trips including Easter Island for $3,500 to $4,000 per person.  Not terrible, but we opted for the third choice and decided to just do it on our terms.

The airfare from Santiago to Easter Island is fairly consonant around $700 round trip with bags included.  Of course, the flight to Chile can be expensive.  In our case we found a repositioning cruise from Santiago traveling up the South American coast on Azamara Cruise Lines so we only needed a one way flight to Santiago.  The 13-day cruise fit nicely into our plans and we opted to build Easter Island into the front portion of the trip.  We had never traveled on Azamara and there were some unique ports included in the itinerary….but that will be another blog.

Airfare for two in business class (only $200 more than coach…I think that was an airline screw-up) was $2,800.  That was from Orlando to Easter Island and returning to Santiago.  We opted to spend 4 nights on the Island, I found a nice bungalow across from the ocean right in town for $250 per night and grabbed it on booking,com.  It included breakfast and airport transportation.  We still needed to add the park passes $110 each and the tours.  I did book one full day tour through Viator ($140 for 2) and figured we would take care of the rest as we went.  Not cheap, but not unreasonable, the cruise was expensive but it was a small ship, all told, this ended up a bit more expensive than the Exottica tour but we were also spending three weeks traveling instead on one and seeing much more.  Our total cost was about $10,000 (I did use credit card perks for our travel from Panama City to Salt Lake City and Hotel Points for our nights in Santiago.)  The cruise itself was $5,400.

If you are traveling to Easter Island you must complete an on-line free registration which included documentation of your return flight and information regarding your accommodation.  It was quite easy to complete.  There are no VISA requirements for Chile.

Easter Island sits over 2,000 miles off the cost of Chile.  It doesn’t have a deep-water port and has about 7.500 residents of which about 4,000 are native.  They completely rely on tourism to maintain the economy.  The Island is very small and you can drive the whole island in an hour or two.  There is only one town, Hanga Roa.  Most of the supplies arrive on the daily flight from Santiago or on the monthly cargo ship.  Other than a few tropical fruits, a few vegetables and chickens; not much grows here.

This is a dry island with no rivers or high mountains. It draws 150,000 or so tourists a year which keeps the island viable.  Dogs and horses run free on the island and wonder the streets at will.  The horses sometimes even rob from the local produce markets.  The dogs on the other hand just assume you are part of the family and are always around.  They will accompany you almost everywhere on the Island.  They are provided veterinary services and are very docile.

Easter Island has had an interesting history.  It is the Eastern most Polynesian Island and the natives had learned to sustain their existence without any interaction from outside cultures until the Europeans discovered the Island.  At one time there were as many as 40,000 natives on this small island.  But tribal wars and disease reduced their population at one point to just over 100. The natives did practice cannibalisms when then Island became dry and few crops be grown.   In the 1800s half the population was removed from the Island and forced into slavery by the Peruvians.  There was a lot of history on this small island. 

We booked our hotel on Booking.com and chose the Pariaso Sunset Bungalows since they was located across from the ocean near the center of the Hango Rou, the only town on the Island.  The cost was approximately $250/night.  They were small, but it had a porch with a nice view of the Ocean and a kitchen.  Like most of the properties, they pick you up at the airport and return you for your flight.  We were extremely happy with the lodging.  It could get warm but it did have a small air conditioner.  It also included breakfast at the restaurant next door which was extremely good.

Our first stop after being picked up (the airport is just 1 mile away) was the park office in town (a five-minute walk from our room) to purchase our park pass for the Island.  It was advertised as $100 and I had expected to pay $100 in cash.  However, it was actually $95,000 Chilian Pesos and they don’t take cash only credit.  That actually converts to $110.  We also learned that you no longer can enter any of the significant sites on the Island without a tour guide.  We had a one-day tour booked and had planned on renting a car for a couple of days. 

The restaurants are fairly expensive on the Island, but we found just up the road from the hotel there was an outdoor restaurant complex with three separate restaurants (pizza, burgers and empanadas).  This became our spot for all 4 evenings.  Each dinner was about $30-$40 for two without alcohol and was very good.

The next morning, we had scheduled a day long group tour through Viator.  We had a good guide, but I was disappointed when I learned that on this tour, we were not going to see many Moai.  Most people take this tour as a second day tour and we did do some interesting things like walk though a lava tube and learn about the “Birdman” competition.  This competition was how the island tribes ended their wars.  Each tribe would have a champion and they would swim out to a small Island about a mile off shore and return with an egg from a particular bird.  When ever got back first, with an unbroken egg, would be the king for a year until the next competition.  The tour was also short and we were back at the room by 3. 

I was disappointed that our tour didn’t involve seeing hardly any of the significant sites on the Island.  Our bungalow owner had arranged a rental car for us for two days.  I asked her to help get us a real tour of the Island.  She changed our reservation for the rental car to one day and got us a full day tour to the major sites for the third day with the tour agency that she knew was good. 

That was a great option.  I should have read the tour descriptions better and matched them with the main areas on the Island.  I would recommend the two tours and one day with the rental car.  That is all the time you need here, unless you just want to chill out on a beautiful island with no crowds.

The rental car was dropped off at room in the evening.  The cars on the island are very limited and old.  The logistics of getting vehicles to the island is complicated and the roads are limited.  We drove the complete island in just a few hours.  It does turn out that many of the sites are visible from the road, so they are easy to see.  The sunrise at the Ahu Tongariki tour is basically unneeded, the view from the road was just fine.  It was very frustrating that this new guide requirement was put into place…but as described by our tour guide: “They used to make a living, but now they are living!”

The next day we did get the full tour of the island.  Of course, we had already driven around and had a good feel of the sites.  The main site to visit is the Quarry (Rano Raraku) where the Moai were created and where they were “walked” to their various destinations.  This by far was the best site om Easter Island for the Moai and definitely the site you don’t want to miss.  The Rapa Nui Park pass is good for 10 days but you are allowed only one entry here.

There is one beach on the Island and it is free to visit.  There are several places in town where you can get into the water but only one sand beach.  Also, the Moai in (and just outside) of town are free to visit without a guide.

Of course, I felt the need to hide Easter Eggs on Easter Island and I did stash four of the in the town in the park across from our hotel.  On the day we left only one had been discovered. 

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is definitely a bucket list destination and very remote.  Personally, I was very taken back by the guide requirement which really limited what you could do, and for me, really took away from the magic of the Island.  I don’t believe that this was not put in place to protect the Moai. It was put in place to draw more money from the visitors which come to the island.  I think it will have the reverse effect.  I know that I won’t recommend others visit the Island until this requirement is changed.  I did see heavily discounted tours available on the main street of the town, so there may be some pressure to change or modify this requirement.  You have part rangers at each site.

Of course, the reason to come here was to see the Moai and they are definitely worth it!  Side note: A cruise to the Island would have been a huge disappointment.  There are no big busses on the island and no where to dock.  Cruise ship tours whould have been ridiculously expensive and most visitors would be limited to the few sites in and around Hanga Roa.