Visiting Easter Island: A Complete Travel Guide

Background of Easter Island

Rapa Nui is the name of the land according to the local people, who also go by that nationality. People have been living on this land since around 300 AD. The name as we know it came from Dutch explorers, who landed on the island in 1722 on Easter day. It wasn’t until 1888 that Chile annexed the island (which is called Isla de Pascua in Spanish).

There are only about 7,500 people who live on the island. While Spanish is the main language of the island, Rapa Nui is also taught to children. Tourism is an important aspect on the island so English is also widely spoken. About a third of the people living on the island now came from Chile to work in the tourism industry.

Getting to Easter Island

The moai of Easter Island

No travel guide about visiting Easter Island would be complete without talking about the moai. The moai were created between 900-1200 A.D. to honor special people on the island, and in fact, the platforms with the moai were always facing towards a village. They were there to protect the people but we were told that many of the moai were pushed over during the Civil War. Victorious tribes would knock over the defeated tribes moai. However, a different guide told us that some of the moai may have been knocked over by people from their actual tribe because they were upset that they were not protected by them. This just goes to show that there are still so many theories and mysteries involving these ancient carvings.

The moai were created by chiseling at the stone with rock. Many of the moai are topped with a top knot which is made of a different, and lighter, reddish stone.

Another huge source of speculation is how the moai were moved from the quarry to their locations throughout the island. Many people think that the moai were set into place by attaching a rope on the moai, with people on either side of the stones pulling back and forth, almost making the stone statues look like they are walking. See the video below to understand what I mean.

And of course there are others who believe that the moai were brought in by aliens. I must admit that was part of the attraction to me- spring break trips to visit alien sites is my newest hobby, like last year when I visited Roswell, New Mexico.

Visiting the moai on Easter Island

In order to visit most of the moai on the island, you must have a pass for the Rapa Nui National Park. The national park (which encompasses about half the island) is a UNESCO site. The national park pass, which can be bought online, costs $80 and can be used for 10 days. Two sites, the quarry and Orongo village, can only be visited once with the pass. Make sure to buy a pass for an international visitor and not the pass for a person of Chilean nationality (only $20).

Every time that you enter a site in the national park, you will have to show your pass either on your phone (if you buy your pass online) or with the paper pass that you are given when you buy at the national park office. Some will also want to see your passport, though a picture from your phone will suffice. Make sure you don’t lose your pass, or you will have to buy a new one. All of the sites open at 9:30, except for Tongariki which opens for sunrise.

Other rules include for visiting the National Park:

• No touching of the Moai
• No standing on the platforms
• No driving on unmarked trails
• No camping in the national park

Exploring the island by car

You may also want to rent a car to get around. We were able to rent a car for $50 a day from a car dealer in town. Most of the cars are manual, but you may be able to find an automatic to rent for an upcharge. We walked to the rental shops from our hotel and it was nice to be able to explore the island on the first day on our own. There’s basically one road that loops around the island and from there we were able to enjoy the beautiful coastline and also see some moai from the road.

The speed limit on the island is 30 km/hr in town and 60 km/hr around the island. Watch out! There are lots of potholes. Another thing to be on the alert for while driving on the island are the animals! Roaming free throughout the island were cows and LOTS of horses. We had to take caution because of so many horses who were just chilling in the middle of the road.

If you don’t want to rent a car you can rent bikes, mopeds or call a taxi. Additionally, the guides and group tours will pick you up from your hotel. So a car is not necessary, but we did enjoy using it (especially because of all the rain).

The dogs of Easter Island

And let’s talk more about animals. Dogs are all over this island. But “wild” in the sense that they walk around free and not in the sense that they are mean or crazy. They all seem to be very friendly and I got quite used to looking next to me at the dinner table and seeing a dog sitting there and patiently waiting for some food to drop.

Guides on Easter Island

To enter the national park you must have a guide! On the same website where you can buy a pass to the national park you can also search for a guide. There are literally dozens of guides organized just by language. They have French, English and Spanish guides, but in order to contact one you must either email them or send them a message on WhatsApp. It can be quite intimidating. You can also book a tour through viator or getyourguide. These will most likely be group tours.

My honest opinion about visiting Easter Island is that it was incredibly expensive, not just for the flight but because of the fact that you have to have a guide to see anything, and therefore you must pay a high price for a tour every single day. One of our tours was $70 a person a day and another was $90 a day. And it’s not possible to see all the sites in the park in one day. We were really lucky that both of our guides were really great, informative and friendly! The first day we traveled with Green Island Tours (which have lots of tour options- and our guide Yoyo was great!)

The tours generally pick you up where you are staying, suggest places for lunch and give you tons of information about what you are seeing. And, as was in our case, may even provide ponchos if you get unlucky with weather.

There were two tours we took: the first was the Journey of Legends and the other was Megaliths. Many suggest doing the tours in the opposite order, as the Megaliths have the major attractions. However, we saved the best for last.

Visiting Easter Island- a complete travel guide of the sites

Time to talk about all the sites on Easter Island!

Tongariki

Let’s start with the most famous moai in the park- the Ahu Tongariki. These are the 15 standing moai. They were set back into upright position by the Japanese after they were allowed to borrow one of the moai for a year. This is also the place to catch some amazing sunrises!

We first saw the Ahu Tongariki our first evening on Easter Island. It is visible from the road so we were able to drive around the island and see it from not too far away. This was after the tours were finished so we were all alone and just incredible to come across from the road.

And because we had a car, we were able to return our last morning to enjoy the beautiful sunrise. And we got lucky; it rained almost the entire time we were on Easter Island, but we were rewarded with quite a show of color. There are many sunrise and sunset tours that are offered, but without having to pay the price for another tour guide we were able to enjoy it from just a little bit further away.

Rano Raraku

The location where you can see the most moai on the island all at once is the quarry. Here, huge moai dot the landscape. With our car on the first evening, we were able to drive up to the quarry (Rano Raraku) and look at it from afar while horses grazed in the surrounding fields.

All the moai were carved from this mountain. There are 397 moai still in this area, some almost complete and ready to be moved to their locations, some that are still part of the bedrock in different states of completion. They are all in the exact location and level of completion as when the quarry was abandoned.

Our tour guide told us that the quarry was a show room for the people wanting a moai- very cool walking around and imagining the ancient people doing some shopping.

Many of the moai are still buried in the ground. In fact, the largest moai on the island is still carved into the mountain. Other moai of note in this area: the only moai where you could see the lower half of the body, because this particular one was kneeling.

Ahu Tahai

Ahu Tahai is the spot to watch the sunset. It’s also one of the free spots to see moai without the national park pass or guide. There are three platforms in this area. The main moai, standing by itself, is in the middle. It’s also the oldest moai on the island. To the left is a platform with 5 moai of all different sizes.

And on the right is the only moai with its restored coral eyes. The eyes were the last things added to the moai. Once the moai were placed in their spots the carving would be finished, and adding the eyes was very symbolic.

Playa de Anakena

Playa de Anakena is a public beach that anyone can access without a pass, and there are some moai there. These moai are pretty well preserved because they were buried under the sand for centuries. It’s also one of the few places on the island with white sand and there are, of course, beautiful waters. We enjoyed a nice lunch there as well from one of the restaurants that are located at the beach.

Rano Kau

Rano Kau is a huge dormant volcano and the largest crater on the island. It’s also a big spot for hikers. Unfortunately, while we visited there were torrential downpours almost every single day so we weren’t able to hike or to see the views that it gives of the island. This is also the location of the Orongo village. This village was also the ceremonial center of the Rapa Nui. We visited the visitor center here, and this is where I learned about the birdman tradition.

The Birdman competition involved Rapa Nui men climbing down the volcano cliffs, swimming to the island Moto Nui to get an egg and then swimming back, scaling the mountainside and being the first to come back with an intact egg.  That person would become king, and also win a woman to take as wife.  They would later have a moai made in their honor, and the moai would have special carvings on it to indicate that he was a birdman victor. From Rano Kau you can see into the crater and also see the Moto Nui island. 

Vaihu

At Vaihu, a ancient village was reconstructed so tourists can see what homes of the Rapa Nui may have looked like. There are stone chicken coops (completely enclosed so that the chicken and guinea pigs wouldn’t get stolen), vegetable gardens (with tall stone walls to protect from thieves and the elements) and reconstructed canoe-shaped buildings. Lava rocks on the ground are the foundation of the buildings, and those rocks have holes in them where reeds were curved to create the walls. Visitors (with a guide) can wander the grounds to see the reconstructed homes which overlook the ocean.

Ana Te Pahu 

On Easter Island, underground caves have been found that total more than 7km in length, making it the largest system of volcanic caves in Chile and one of the largest cave systems in the world. These are available for exploring (with a guide of course). On one of our guided tours we explored Ana Te Pahu. The entrance to the cave is mostly not visible, hidden by the banana trees and other vegetation. The caves on the island were used as homes, to grow plants and to collect water. Our guide told us that this cave was greatly used during the civil war as a hiding spot (and therefore home) for some tribes, who may have resorted to cannibalism. It was really cool exploring the caves- and you may want to pack a headlamp just for this experience!

To get to Ana Te Pahu it is a bit of a walk, but on the way you pass native plants, lots of horses, cows, and remnants of the ancient dwellings. It was a great walk, but be mindful of the holes in the ground, which lead to the caves underneath!

Ahu Akivi

Ahu Akivi are the only moai that are seemingly facing the ocean. However, there is evidence that there was a village between the moai and the ocean.

Te Pito Kura

The last statue that was placed on a platform (almost 10m tall) was on this site. This is also the site of a round rock referred to as the ‘navel of the earth’ that has magnetic properties.

Other sites

There is so much to see on Easter Island, I’ve only touched on some of them. Other sites that I visited during my time include:

• Vinapu – The site of some of the island’s most beautiful stonework.
• Akahanga- remnants of a village and many topped moai.
• Puna Pau- This small volcano is where the red stone was quarried for the top knots (pukao) of the moai. You can also walk to the top of this volcano for great views of the island.

Slide through the pictures to below to see some of the other sites on Easter Island.

Hango Roa

In the town of Hango Roa is where you can find the restaurants, grocery stores, shops and more. It’s a small town, only about 7,500 people live on the island after all, and it is easily walkable. There’s also a small beach at Hango Roa harbor where you will be able to spot sea turtles.

Shopping and money on Easter Island

On Easter Island, most places accept credit cards; they also use the Chilean peso. The island only has two ATMs. The only place that we were not able to use our credit card was the restaurant at the beach. Some people will also accept American dollars, but the dollar must be in pristine condition.

Dining on Easter Island

No travel guide about visiting Easter Island would be complete without talking about food! We had read quite a few place that eating meals on Easter island was expensive. I’d even read from some people who recommended bringing food from Chile. While that may be fine, we found that meals on Easter Island were just about the same price as a meal in Columbus, Ohio. Most places added a 10% tip to the bill. Some of the yummy places we ate were:

• Kanahau- a restaurant with views of the water, outside eating only on a covered patio. I really enjoyed the risotto here.
• Topa Ra’a- a fun modern restaurant with great decor, amazing frozen drinks and huge pizza.
• Pea Restobar- right on the water, a great lunch spot for incredible empanadas.
• Le-Frits restobar- on the main strip on Easter island. Great service and delicious French fries.

And as is to be expected, there is a lot of seafood on the island, especially tuna and ceviche. For drinks- delicious tropical drinks, Chilean chardonnay or Chilean beer. Slide through the pictures to get a taste (lol) of some of the food on Easter Island.

Easter Island Entertainment

Culture is important to the people and they are very proud of it. I recommend checking out one of the performances offered on the island. We went to the Kari Kari ballet, the oldest performance group on Easter Island, which was an hour long show held on Tuesdays, Thursday, and Saturdays. While the seats aren’t comfortable unless you buy the dinner package, it was very interesting to see. Be prepared, they pull people in from the audience to join them on stage. Another option is the Vai Te Mihi show, held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays. You have to book the tickets by email, with your hotel or at their ticket office in person. All performances offer meals before or after the show, face painting, and there are bars at the events if you want to purchase drinks.

Thanks for reading my complete travel guide about visiting Easter Island. We had a wonderful time visiting Easter Island, and it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I hope you can make it there too! Have you been before? Have any questions, or suggestions about future trips? I would love to know, so leave a comment. Until next time!

-Catching Katie