Easter Island (Rapa Nui) - Travel and photo tips

General

Easter Island is one of the most remote places you can travel to. Located in the middle of the Pacific, far away from any mainland you will find the beautiful Easter Island. Is it also called Isla de Pascua (Spanish) or Rapa Nui (local). The Island is famous from the movie Rapa Nui with Kevin Costner. The Moais (stone heads) got additional fame through the movie Night at the Museum (Dum Dum give me Gum Gum). Easter Island is part of Chile, so you pay with Chilean Pesos on the island. However, the island has a special status, so that even Chileans are only allowed to travel to Easter Island for a limited time.
You can find more general information e.g. on Wikipedia. All information about attractions, the required ticket and many pictures can be found in the further course and on the detail pages.

Getting there

In general you can go there only by plane with Latam. From Santiago de Chile there are daily flights and once a week from Tahiti. Rarely, there is the possibility that a cruise ship stays in front of the island. However, as the island does not have a large harbor, smaller boats would bring you to the island.

When entering Chile, you will receive a PDI paper, similar to a receipt. Keep that one, because you will need it again when leaving and possibly in the hotel as well. If you arrive in Santiago by plane, you will need to pick up your luggage first. Go through customs and then return it to the second floor. Although security areas for international and domestic flights will be available on the second floor, you will need to go through checking on the first floor to go to Easter Island. There you will also need to submit the entry form for Easter Island. This can either be completed online before, which did not work for me, because it somehow it did not recognize my accommodation and I could not continue, or you fill it out on site. You can get the form from the Latam counter where you drop your luggage.

Duration

During your research on Easter Island your will find great articles like Easter Island in 2 or 3 days. But do you really want that? You travel to a super remote place to go everywhere in a hurry and will miss half of things? Yes, you can do it like that … but it’s just stupid. I’ve been on the island for 8 full days and if my flight would not have been 10 hours late, I almost had one more. I think it was a good duration, but I would have been happy to stay for a few more days as well.

I would recommend you a minimum of 5 days. Especially, if you want to do it relaxed and also a bit by foot or by bicycle, then you should schedule minimum 1 week. Maximum I would say 2 weeks, then you have seen all the highlights, even if you do it slowly.

Activities

The island has much to offer. So you can snorkel, scuba dive, surf, bike and hike, visit Moais, caves and volcanic craters, visit the museum and a dance show, watch the stars or just chill by the sea.

I would recommend to divide your trip, so, that you walk / hike a few days,, a few days by bike (10-15 € / day) and some of your days with a vehicle (scooter ~ 30 €, quad ~ 50 €, car ~ 60 € per day).

I did not dive and surf, because my time was not enough, but especially if you are a diver, you should definitely do it there, as the water is really clear.

On the subpages you can find pictures of the places I visited. I hope you will find some inspiration.

National Park Ticket

Most of Easter Island is part of the National Park and most of the attractions are located behind a ticket inspection. The ticket costs 54,000 CLP or $ 80 (as of 05/2019). If you pay in Chilean pesos, you’ll get a bit cheaper (which can change depending on the exchange rate).

You can get the ticket in the “main street” Atamu Tekena in the Oficina Central Ma’u Henua. If you go there from the tourist information, passing bank Estado, you will walk almost directly to the point of sale. You can recognize it through the Rapa Nui flags (white flag with red Rei-Miro (looks almost like a banana)). Alternatively, the ticket can also be purchased at the entrance of Orongo or Rano Raraku. I read before, that you can buy the ticket directly at the airport. Whether this possibility does not exist anymore or if it just did not for me, because my flight arrived late in the evening with 10h delay, I do not know.

Ticket validity

The ticket is valid for 10 days, which should be sufficient for most travelers. At all protected locations you will get your ticket stamped the first time you enter, so you can collect many stamps.

Orongo and Rano Raraku allow only 1 entry, so do not go there just before closing time. Whether you want to use your unique entry there in the context of a tour, is of course a philosophy question. I prefer to have unlimited time alone there even if I miss the stories a guide would tell. I forget 95% of the stories anyway and the other 5% I can also read myself.

You can visit the other places like Anakena, Tongariki, Ahu Akivi etc. several times in your 10 days. However, there is so much to see that you hardly ever have time to visit the same place twice. I was only in Tongariki more than once.

Tahai, the place for the sunset is not under control, so in case you have more than 10 days on the island, you can still watch the sunset there every day