CHILE: Easter Island
Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile
Travis and I spent four days exploring the UNESCO World Heritage Sites on Easter Island (Rapa Nui). On our way to Easter Island we took two days to visit Santiago, Chile first. I highly recommend taking a day or two to rest up and explore the capital city of Chile before flying six hours to the remote island of Rapa Nui.
4 DAYS ON EASTER ISLAND, CHILE DAY BY DAY
DAY ONE - Fly to Easter Island (known as Rapa Nui) watch sunset at Ahu Tahai
DAY TWO - Full day tour of Easter Island (Rano Raraku, Ahu Tongariki, Anakena Beach)
DAY THREE - Full day Easter Island on our own (Sunrise at Ahu Tongariki, Ovahe Beach, Sunset at Ahu Tahai)
DAY FOUR - Half day tour of Easter Island (Ahu A Kivi, Puna A Pau, Vinapu, Orongo Crater) and fly back home
VISITING EASTER ISLAND (RAPA NUI)
Easter Island (or as the locals call it, Rapa Nui) has always been on my list. So I was very excited when we finally had the opportunity to visit this Island in December 2022. See below for all our trip details!
GETTING TO EASTER ISLAND, CHILE: Rapa Nui is one of the most remote islands in the world. The only way to get there is through Santiago, Chile. As of DEC 2022 LATAM is the only airline operating in and out of the island. They have limited flight options inbound and outbound. We flew in on a Friday morning and flew out the following Monday evening. I found different online information on what days LATAM fly’s to Rapa Nui (and believe this changes with seasons). My solution was to put in the dates I wanted, if nothing showed up, I tweaked the dates until a flight was available.
AT THE SANTIAGO AIRPORT: Rapa Nui was closed for almost two years due to covid and they started opening back up in August 2022. When we flew in December, you needed to have a negative covid PCR test or proof of vaccination. CHILE TRAVEL has all the updated information on requirements for entering Chile as well as Rapa Nui. Make sure you fill out your single entry form before getting to the airport as you will need to present this as well as your vaccination card, proof that you booked a round trip ticket and a SERNATUR registered hotel (we showed our hotel reservation and the hotel also provided their SERNATUR number). When we arrived at the Santiago Airport we had to wait in one line to show our passports and the above documents to get entry approval. Once we were approved we had to show our sticker and single entry form to the second line which was where we checked in our luggage. LATAM allowed two free pieces of luggage to be checked per person. There were a few more checkpoints with your passport along the way (yes you need this even though Rapa Nui is considered a domestic location within Chile). I would recommend giving yourself plenty of time to get through all these lines as well as time to walk to the gate, which for us happened to be about a 20 minute walk.
ARRIVING AT EASTER ISLAND: Our hotel provided pickup at the airport. Fiji, the daughter of the owner, was waiting with a sign for us. She gave us a quick tour of the main street on Rapa Nui and pointed out her favorite places to eat. She also stopped at the main center so we could get our National Park Pass. This pass is mandatory to enter all major sites on the island. It is $80 USD and they ONLY accept Credit Cards. It is valid for 10 days only. You cannot purchase this upon arrive at the airport and they do not take cash. This is also a great artesanal market next door to buy all your souvenirs.
WHERE TO STAY ON EASTER ISLAND: There are plenty of hotel and lodging options on Easter Island. The island is not large and most of the lodges are located near the main part of town. We decided on Kona Koa Eco Lodge because we loved the natural look and cute bungalows. Jerome (the owner) is very friendly and helped answer any questions we had prior and during our trip. We were also able to rent a car and hire a guide through him at a great rate and it was very convenient.
GETTING AROUND EASTER ISLAND: There is the option to walk (which would take a while) bike, motorcycle or rent a car to get around the island. Since we only had two full days to explore Rapa Nui we decided renting a car was the best for us so we could see as much as possible and it was also hot so biking wasn’t much of an option. We rented a car through our lodge, but there is also a car rental on the main street in Hanga Roa.
OFFICIAL RAPA NUI STAMP: You use to be able to get this at the post office, but that has changed so don’t spend time waiting in line there. You can now get the official Rapa Nui stamp in your passport at the Sernatur.
GUIDES ARE REQUIRED ON EASTER ISLAND: This is a new rule post covid. You need a guide to be with you to enter all major National Park sites on the island. Prior to visiting, I had read a lot of blogs that said it was easy to rent a car and just enter the sites as you please, but now you cannot enter majority of the famous sites without a guide. This helps in providing jobs for the locals and protecting the historical sites. We were able to visit Anakena Beach during the day and also the famous sunset spot Ahu Tahai every night without a guide. I also highly recommend hiring a guide because it’s the best way to learn everything you can about the island and culture history, moai, etc as there are no plaques of information anywhere! You really are missing out if you don’t hire a guide. We found ours through our lodge, but they also have plenty of tours on Viator.com
MUST SEES ON EASTER ISLAND: We didn’t see everything on the island (of course there was not enough time) but based on everything we saw my top favorite were the following:
Rano Raraku (the quarry where they carved the Moai - you can only visit this once)
Ahu Tongariki (best place for sunrise on easter island and the 15 standing Moai)
Ahu Tahai (best place for sunset on easter island)
Orongo Crater (Incredible crater and museum where you can learn about birdman)
BEST TIME TO VISIT EASTER ISLAND: I am bias, because we felt like the time we visited Easter Island was the BEST. Yes, it was only a few months after reopening from covid, but also December is a pretty slow month we were told. Which was great because there were literally no tourists there. At most locations there were only a handful of people and at the Orongo Crater we were the only people! This was so pleasant. The most popular time to visit the island and therefore the busiest time is February during the first two weeks when they have a famous festival. Extra bonus is December is summer so the days were extra long which means more time to see things on Rapa Nui.
16 DEC 22 -RAPA NUI // DAY ONE: Hello Easter Island!
Flying for almost six hours it was surreal to finally see the island appear in the grand blue ocean. Wow! We were finally landing at one of my top must see destinations. We got off the airplane and walked the tarmac to be greeted with beautiful lei's and Fiji, the daughter of the owner of our lodge. She took us to get our National Park Pass and we checked into Kona Koa Eco Lodge. What cute bungalows with great ocean views!
We landed in the late afternoon so first stop after checking in was FOOD and DRINKS to avoid any hangry people! We jumped in the rental car (we rented directly from the lodge so it was already there when we checked in) and made our way down the windy, bumpy, dirt road where we found Oheho Surf Cafe for pina coladas and seafood. A wonderful cafe for fresh food and great views of the water. Travis took some time to scout out the waves (yes he did find some time to surf!). We saw the famous turtles along the coast and watched as people swam with them.
I saw my first MOAI! woohooo! Note to all: you cannot walk anywhere near them, which we did not know since we came up from the ocean side and we got yelled at by a few locals protecting these famous moai. Also, if you didn’t know this - you cannot touch the Moai - it is a huge fine and you get kicked off the island! We continued walking along the coast and found a more recent art installation of some stone angels as well as many wild dogs.
AHU TAHAI
Wow! Wow! Wow! The best place to watch the sunset is at Ahu Tahai located on the western part of the island and only a mile from our lodge. We of course made sure to see the sunset on our first night. Since it was summer the sun did not set until 9:40pm so we had plenty of time to walk around these platforms and take in the beauty of the Moai as well as watch the colors change in the sky. This is a great place to bring a blanket and your camera and sit with others as they all watch the sun go down. From a photographers point of view if you want photos of the Moai actually front lit instead of back lit you may want to switch it up and do the recommended sunrise spot Ahu Tongariki for sunset. We never did this for sunset, but just an idea that came to my mind on our last day there.
“I took way too many photos during our first sunset, I just couldn’t stop with the change in colors and our first true experience getting to soak in the beauty of the Moai and Rapa Nui! ”
17 DEC 22 - RAPA NUI // FULL DAY: Tour with guide
Our guide, Toke picked us up at the lodge for our first full guide day around the island. We drove along the rugged coast line, mesmerized by the deep blue water and big waves until we arrived at Hanga Te’e. Here Toke showed us some reconstructions of ancient Rapa Nui houses and farming techniques. They build circular structures called Manavai out of porous volcanic rock that protected the crops from the windy coast and retained moisture and humidity, creating a micro-climate. Shallow hand-carved basins allowed the Rapa Nui to study the stars in the water’s reflection from a fixed point to create a celestial calendar much like the Mayans. We also got our first glimpse of the Moai, ancient monoliths carved from volcanic ash rock. These particular Moai were toppled over during the island’s civil wars. Even lying face down, these Moai were impressive, although their significance remained a mystery for now…
RANO RARAKU
Toke then brought us to Rano Raraku, a volcanic crater inside the Rapa Nui National Park. It is home to a massive rock quarry of volcanic ash. There are 887 Moai on the island, and all were carved from the sides and crater of this massive quarry. The master carvers of Rapa Nui sculpted the Moai from the side of the mountain and then carefully slid them down on their backs before standing them upright and transporting them throughout the island.
The transportation process is still a mystery, but the most common theory is that the bottom of the Moai were rounded and workers used ropes made from human hair to slowly “walk” the monoliths across the island to their final resting places. 336 Moai still remain in the quarry in various stages of completion and transportation. Some are thought to be demonstration pieces, where clans could view the skills of the master carvers before deciding to purchase a Moai to honor their clan’s fallen chieftains.
You’re only allowed to visit the Quarry once with your National Park Pass, which gets stamped every time you enter one of the required stations. So with that known fact I probably took way too many photos and spent way too much time here, but we really wanted to soak it all in. The moai sculptures were incredible to see up close and learn all about the history of the talented carvers. We loved getting to see our next stop, Aha Tongariki in the distance!
AHU TONGARIKI
Our day continued by visiting Ahu Tongariki. It is the largest platform on Rapa Nui, consisting of 15 Moai. As with all the other platforms, the Moai were toppled over and broken during the civil wars. In addition, many were washed away and damaged during a large tsunami in 1960. The Japanese government helped fund a reconstruction effort in the 1990s to restore the area and painstakingly place each Moai back in his original position. The largest Moai on the platform weighs 86 tons and is the heaviest ever erected The Rapa Nui designed this ceremonial platform to align with the summer solstice. One the longest day of the year, the sun rises exactly over the middle of the platform, which we were fortunate enough to see (scroll below for photos)!
ANAKENA BEACH
A full day tour takes up the entire day! We started at 9am and by 3pm we were ready for lunch, so after a quick stop to see the ocean views and the “center of the earth” at Ahu Te Pito Kura we adventured the famous Anakena Beach to see the beautiful moai, drink some cocktails, eat empanadas and ceviche. It was a super hot day so we didn’t spend anytime at the beach. We then jumped back in the car to adventure back to the hotel with a quick stop to see some wooden carvings made my Toke’s uncle. What a great first day tour with Toke! After a quick siesta we walked along the coast line to make our way back to the famous sunset spot where there is a cute restaurant that we stopped to have a drink, dessert and watch the sunset!
18 DEC 22 - RAPA NUI // FREE DAY: Explore Easter Island on our own
Originally we had this day planned for a full day tour, but it ended up being the finals for World Cup and we really wanted to watch the game so we moved our private tour to the following day before we flew out at 11pm. Our morning started with a beautiful sunrise!
AHU TONGARIKI for SUNRISE
This is something you don’t want to miss! We were unable to get a guide to take us in the morning, but we drove and parked in the parking lot and then walked to the stone wall outside the park. From here we still had great views and were able to slowly watch the sun rise behind the Moai.
After watching the sun rise, we made our way to a local bar to watch the World Cup! It was tough to find a place that was open on a Sunday morning, but thankfully we found one spot that had their TV on and we posted up until the bar and food opened at 11am. There were a few of us there, sitting in the outdoor chairs cheering on France and Argentina!
After the game we made our way to the beach side to swim with the turtles (no photos in order to save my phone from drowning in the ocean - but this is a must do!!). We had some pina coladas and our favorite ceviche on the coastline as we watched the surfers in the distance. Then we made our way to Ovahe Beach, which is right next to the famous Anakena Beach. This beach was recommended by our guide and it was perfect because no one was there. A bit of a walk over the black volcanic rock, but it was beautiful and totally worth it to unwind for the evening before heading back into town to see the sunset.
19 DEC 22 - RAPA NUI // LAST DAY: Half day tour with guide and depart Easter Island
Our last day on the island! I can’t believe how fast the time passed. We started the morning meeting with our guide, Toke and he took us to the highlights of the south west part of the island. We were all pretty tired and sun burnt (remember to pack your sunscreen and wear it!) so we were a bit slow moving, but excited to soak up all the most recent history of the island.
AHU A KIVI
The famous location for having seven Moai that face the ocean! Although according to our guide, it’s and island and you can see a 360 view of the ocean from here so they may still have their backs facing the ocean. The oral legend states that the first king, Hoto-Matua from the Marquesa Islands, had a vision of Rapa Nui as the center of the universe and sent a team of navigators to find it. After discovering the island, seven navigators stayed behind on the island and waited for the King’s return. These seven Moai represent those navigators as the first settlers of Rapa Nui.
PUNA A PAU
A small crater quarry that was the sole source of the red volcanic rock that the Rapa Nui used to make the top knots on the Moai. You can see the stones in various states of transportation as they rolled them out of the quarry to their final destinations.
VINAPU
Ahu Vinapu is one of the most perfectly sculpted platforms on the island. The way the shaped boulders fit into place suggest possible contact with the Incan empire. This site is also special because it contains the only female Moai, carved out of the red volcanic rock used to make the pukao (top knots). Toke believes that this was a ceremonial birthing site and that the female Moai represented fertility.
ORONGO CRATER
Orongo is a massive volcanic crater and ceremonial site of the Birdman Competition (Tangata Manu). After the civil wars left the clans without a central monarchy, it was decided that an annual competition be held to elect a new king. Competitors from each clan would be tasked with climbing down the steep cliffs of Orongo and then paddling homemade reed boats 2km across the shark filled channel to the island of Moto Nui. There they would have to retrieve a Sooty Tern egg and bring it back undamaged. The first to do so was recognized as king for one year. The race was very dangerous and many competitors were killed.
What a wonderful adventure! After our half day tour and final goodbyes to Toke, Travis and I walked the shoreline to get a few more photos. We found a new dog friend that followed us for over ten blocks and joined us under our table during dinner. We said one last hola and adios to the Moai. Adios Isla de Pascua! It was a wonderful, magical adventure!
HOW MANY DAYS SHOULD YOU SPEND VISITING EASTER ISLAND?: All in all we had two half days and two full days and I think that was plenty of time to see all the major highlights of the island. If you wanted to take time to just beach chill, snorkel, dive and explore or hike more parts of the island you would need more than two full days. Really it just comes down to what you want to see when you visit the island. For us it was all the major historical sites, eat some great seafood, a bit of relaxing and soak up the sunrise and sunsets!
As always, Feel free to contact me if you have any questions on planning your trip to Rapa Nui and I can try to help.
Our Easter Island travel dates were 18-21 December 2022. THE ABOVE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCE. THESE ARE MY PERSONAL OPINIONS AND ALL FACTS, DETAILS AND INFORMATION ABOVE COULD CHANGE WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF COPYING THIS ITINERARY OR RECOMMENDATIONS DOES NOT GO EXACTLY AS PLANNED. SOME LINKS ABOVE ARE AFFILIATE LINKS WHICH MEANS IF YOU CHOOSE TO MAKE A PURCHASE I MAY EARN A SMALL COMMISSION. AFFILIATE LINKS COST YOU NOTHING AND HELP KEEP THIS CONTENT FREE. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT