Easter Island Travel Guide: 5 Day Itinerary & My Experience on the Island

NOTE: TO VISIT MOST HISTORICAL SITES ON THE ISLAND, A LOCAL GUIDE IS REQUIRED

Easter Island is one of the coolest, most off-the-beaten path places you can go as a tourist. The entire island is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and for good reason. There’s no Hiltons or Marriotts (no points redemptions, sorry!), no convenience stores or big grocery stores, just really cool nature, really great people, and a really cool history. In this post, you’ll find my recommendation for a 5 day itinerary on the island, which I think is the perfect amount of time to hit all the main sites without feeling too rushed.

See (HERE) for my post on how to get there. Getting there isn’t super hard, it just takes some time and some planning. In this post, you’ll find:

1. How Many Days Is Right for Easter Island?
2. Do You Need A guide?
3. How Expensive Is Easter Island
4. Day 1: Arrive & Explore the Island
5. Day 2: Tour Day 1: Ahu Tongariki, Moa’i Factory, Rano Kao and The Origin Seeds
6. Day 3: Second Full Day of Tours
7. Day 4: Self-Guided Day: Drive to Anakena and Explore the Island
8. Day 5: One last Meal Then Fly Back to Mainland Chile
9. Conclusion

How Many Days Is Right for Easter Island?

You’re more than likely flying halfway across the world and spending at least a thousand dollars for your trip here, so what’s the right amount of time? Five days should be the minimum without feeling rushed, which I’ll walk through in this post. One day to get settled and explore the town, 2 days will be with a guide hitting all the main sites, one day on your own to explore, and then the last day you’ll have enough time for a lazy morning in town before hopping on your flight out.

You could spend much more time here without getting bored, however. Especially if you’re into hiking and want to do a multi-day hike / camping, sky’s the limit for the amount of time you spend here. Or until you run out of money.

Do You Need A guide?

Ever since the re-opening of the island to tourism post-COVID, one unfortunate new policy on the island is you can’t go to most of the eye island sites without a guide.

This was instituted to:

1. Protect historical sites. Multiple idiots decided to try and take a piece of the stone heads, and one even carved their initials in one. This is why we can’t have nice things.
2. Bolster the local economy. A significant portion of the Island’s economy relies on tourism, and most guides have some ties to the indigenous population of the island

How Expensive Is Easter Island

A tour guide in a small group will run you $100-$150 per day per person. I’d budget another $10-$20 per day for tips for the guide – not required but recommended, especially if you like your guide (you probably will). When I visited, I booked a tour directly through the hotel (Inaki Uhi Hotel), where the hotel owner was also the guide (shoutout Alejandro!).

However, there are multiple tour companies on the island if you’d prefer to book one in advance. If booking a well-trafficked B&B in advance, I’d message (most will have whatsapp) ahead of time to see what options and pricing look like and compare with some of the bigger tour companies on the island.

Day 1: Arrive & Explore the Island

Afternoon: Arrive & Get Settled in Your Hotel

There are generally only 1-2 flights per day from the island from Santiago. My flight arrived around 1pm. There are some taxis, although most B&Bs will likely arrange some sort of transport.

The drive into town takes about 5 minutes, or maybe less depending on traffic. In a pinch, you could honestly walk to town from the airport, although that may be a pain with all your luggage.

The name of the main town is called Hanga Roa, where most of the island’s population lives with hotels, restaurants, small shops and some touristy shops.

Evening: Explore Downtown Hanga Roa & Sunset Walk on the Waterfront

The waterfront strip in Hanga Roa has a bunch of nice restaurants, some pricey and touristy although some very good and decently affordable. I tried pretty much all of them during the trip and my favorite, by far, was Oheho Surf Cafe. This place is pretty casual, and right next to the soccer field by the water (you can’t miss it). Prices here are actually pretty reasonable (locals will come here too) and by no exaggeration has the best Tuna I’ve had in my life.

Right on the waterfront you’ll be able to see the famous stone heads (Mo’ai). This is an awesome place to watch the sunset. There’s also a small beach in town if you want to unwind here after a long flight.

Day 2: Tour Day 1: Ahu Tongariki, Moa’i Factory, Rano Kao and The Origin Seeds

Note your exact your may differ in order of the sites, but you’ll more than likely visit some or all of these places if doing guided tours.

Stop 1: Ahu Tongariki (largest / most famous Mo’ai Platform on the Island)

Our first stop on our first day was the most famous view of the Mo’ai. This platform has 15 massive Mo’ai statues. We arrived right around sunrise. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast but was beautiful nonetheless in the morning. These guys have had quite the history, being toppled several times from internal tribal conflict on the island, as well knocked over by a large tsunami in 1960 (to be specific – the largest tsunami ever instrumentally recorded created by a magnitude 9.5 earthquake). However, they’ve since been restored and are pretty incredible.

Stop 2: Rano Raraku (“Mo’ai Factory”)

Our next stop was Rano Raraku, nicknamed the Mo’ai “Factory”. This is the place where the famous stone heads were carved, and then later shuffled (alien teleportation) miles across the island. The clouds cleared up and it was insanely beautiful when we were there.

Stop 3: Rano Kau (Extinct Volacno) + Orongo

While the Mo’ai are very cool and a staple for visiting the island, to be honest my absolute favorite place on the island was Rano Kau. This is an extinct volcano crater right next to town. On top of that, there’s a preserved Rapa Nui village embedded in the mountain called Orongo.

On the border of the this crater are apparently “origin seeds” for the most natural, non-genetically modified / non-pesticide crops you can find on the planet for things like avocados.

Rapamycin can also be found here – the increasingly popular all-purpose anti aging drug that was found in the soil here. Pretty nuts.

The above island is Moto Nui, just off the coast of the main island. In indigenous Rapa Nui culture, there would be annual “Birdman” competitions to see who would lead the tribe for a year. The way it worked is all men of age would swim to that island, and the first man to return with an egg (uncracked) from the Terns nesting on the island would get to lead the tribe.

Honestly, this could be a pretty good idea for the US government leadership at this point (combined with some sort of aptitude test. Maybe Birdman challenge + getting above a 32 on the ACT). I could get behind that.

After our tour wrapped, it was time to head into town to enjoy dinner and get some rest after a long day.

Day 3: Second Full Day of Tours

This day was cool but if I had to trim my trip down by one day, I’d remove this one.

Stop 1: Island Caves

One dark spot of Easter Island history is that almost the entire native population was wiped out or shipped off the island and forced into slavery in Peru. However, some (~100) were able to survive in the network of caves underneath the island. We got the chance to walk inside these which was really cool.

Stop 2: Ahu Akivi

These Mo’ai are unique in that they face the ocean, not inland. According to legend, they represent the Seven Rapa Nui explorers originally sent who discovered the island before it was ever inhabited.

Stop 3: Anakena Beach

I love this beach. In fact, I loved this beach so much I came back the next day and spent the whole day here. We only had an hour or so on this tour to spend here, which isn’t enough to fully relax here.

Afternoon / Evening: Free Time & Dinner Dance Show

After the tour, I headed to town for a bite to eat and to watch the sunset.

Once it’s nighttime, I’d highly recommend going to a local dance show. I went to one hosted by Te Moana, a restaurant in town. Dinner is provided but optional – I chose to eat elsewhere and just paid $40 USD each for my tickets to the show. It was really fun, although you probably will be asked to dance at some point (with all the other tourists, don’t worry) and you definitely will have the music stuck in your head for a few days. It’s very catchy.

Day 4: Self-Guided Day: Drive to Anakena and Explore the Island

Morning: Grab Breakfast and Rent a Car

After getting breakfast at the hotel, I walked to the main road in town that had a bunch of car rental shops. Booking in advance is possible but I just rented day-of. The road is called Atamu Tekena that has all the rental shops. It’s on the main strip in town (not on the water), so it’s hard to miss.

The car rental was $90 USD for an automatic compact sedan. The thing was a glorified golf cart but all I needed to explore the island.

I’d highly recommend renting a car for at least a day. Driving a car on Easter Island is super easy because there’s zero traffic (a bit in town but that’s it). It’s also a way to see the island on your time, and there are a bunch of places you can pull off the road for pictures (no going into the Mo’ai sites though – you need a guide for that).

Late Morning: Drive to Mahina Brewery

There’s actually a local Easter Island Brewery called Mahina. Probably the coolest-located brewery in the world.

Given I was driving I just got beers for the beach later, but this would be a great place to hangout if you have spare time.

Early Afternoon: Relax on Anakena Beach

After sunbathing and swimming for a bit, I went to grab lunch by the beach. There’s a few cafes right on the beach, although please note they only take cash. I made the mistake of hoping they’d accept card, realizing they don’t and then having to (embarrassingly) borrow some money from people I had recognized from a tour on the island. Don’t be like me.

Day 5: One last Meal Then Fly Back to Mainland Chile

My travel rule of thumb is that however sad you are to leave a destination the morning of is directly correlated with how much you enjoyed it. Some places (cough cough, Santiago), I wasn’t sad at all. Easter Island, I was very sad to leave.

After getting breakfast in town (tuna ceviche, of course), it was time to walk around one last time.

My ride back to mainland. Probably the most unique 787 route in the world.

Conclusion

5 days (including travel days, so only really 3 full days) is a perfect amount of time on Easter Island to hit all the main sites without feeling rushed. However, it’s definitely not enough time to do anything too in depth – like hiking or camping on the island. Like me, you’ll probably leave the island wanting to come back again.