Anyone planning/considering going to Easter Island in the next month or two, please get in touch as I have open tickets to there and would love to actually use them (part of a OW RTW trip.) Since a minimum stay on the island is required, I figure I'd go nuts if I went alone (especially in the winter)-- but I would love to see the heads, if possible.

I am jealous! have always wanted to go there! have a great time. Take photos please and post.

JonNYC - a great place to visit. Qantas has just opened up a codeshare with Lan Chile to Australia, and cancelled its EZE direct service, so anyone flying from here direct to South america MUST land there by choice. What an invol. stopover.

Went there years ago and it is neat. I recall another thread on the boards recently about some folks heading for Santiago Chile later 2002, and IIFC Easter Island was on the "must do" list? Watch it in Chile - when you land - US, Canadian and Oz citizens get stung for about $40 cash money before you ever get to immigration, or that was the deal a year or so back.

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~ Glen ~

I saw some reference to that-- but I can't wait 'till then! It's holding up my making EXP. Oh well, thanks for the advice.

JohnNYC - did you ever decide on dates? There is a chance Joh and I will be in Santiago early August, and we might as well do the Easter Island trip from there if it looks like anyone else is around. We fly into Rio from MIA, but were there in Rio for last NYE, and want to go somewhere else in Sth America from there, and understand KLM has a service from Rio to SCL that we may as well try and burn some FD points on.

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~ Glen ~

Ozstamps - doesn't the Lan Chile/Qantas code-share operate as SYD-AKL-SCL with no possibility to stop on Easter Isld? I believe the only way in/out from this side is on Lan's PPT-SCL service and thus no OW operated flts to/from Aus/NZ-PPT.

SYDGuy. Yes Aerolineas ceases the SYD-AKL-EZE service soon, and QF will then codeshare with LanChile to SCL via Easter Island and Tahiti. I can't imagine EI stopovers would be prohibited on that route? Anyway I was lucky enough to stop there on another trip from Tahiti to Santiago on Lan Chile.

Aerolineas is selling r/t flights from here now for about $US500 which is an amazing low price.

But Joh and I are taking the rather indirect route via UA to Rio (31,000 flown status miles!) via Washington DC and Miami, and "SeaDoo3" in Seattle on the way back as an out-of-the-way stop on the route home.

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~ Glen ~

This would be a dream route for many pax travelling for leisure since the above named two are just about the most desired detinations in the world for many.

OzStamps - KLM stopped flying to SCL a couple of years ago. I'm not sure who they're code-sharing with...I doubt it's either LA or RG.

Let me know when you're planning on being this side of the world.

I'm still holding my tickets and I'm ready, willing and anxious to do the trip if we can get a small group together for SCL/IPC-- keep me posted if any plans start to firm up, my tickets are open so I can go on relatively short notice.

Spoke to UA today who tell us we can get C reward tix on Varig from Brazil to Santiago, having us arrive into SCL midday Sunday August 11.

Qantas tell us we can redeem QF miles on Lan Chile SCL-Easter Island same day, arriving there 8.10pm. Note - they only fly TWICE a week on that route - on Thursdays and Sundays. (767/300)

Flights back IPC-SCL Thursday August 15th also are OK with QF reward points, leaving 10.50 am and getting us there 5.30pm. The next Varig flight to Brazil is at 2.30pm on Friday August 16th, which connects nicely with our UA flight GRU-MIA-IAD-SEA, where after 20+ hours in airports/planes we will be partying at SeaDooFour if we are indeed still awake.

Three questions:

1. Jon NYC Are these dates from SCL good for your schedule?

2. And if they are, is Jim_B up for dinner on the evening of August 15? We missed connecting last year, so fingers crossed.

3. Does ANYONE have an idea of costs and where to book for the on-island few days?

4. Is there anyone else out there up for this?

For us to get to SCL in time to make the Sunday flight, we need to cancel out our already upgraded Washington and Miami incoming flights, and a day of sightseeing there, and fly without stopping DEN-ORD-GRU-SCL to get there by Sunday. So if we go with this we can't unravel it easily. But being August want to lock in something REAL soon so reward tix do not evaporate.



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~ Glen ~

There are moderate hotels, but hostel operators meet arriving flights and offer basic rooms, they'll also take you to their lodging - saves a taxi. Take USD cash. It's no bargain destination. Some credit cards accepted. Get to know Spanish if you need to use the phone operator. Enough English spoken (just) to get around. Rent a car to do the island circuit. Great place, take time to learn about the geography and history and enjoy it even more. Wish I could go again. (the runway is said to be an alternate landing ground for the space shuttle..)

Glen-- I've e-mailed you, hopefully the posting here will pull in a few more folks.

OK .... we look pretty definite for those dates, and fingers crossed JonNYC can clear his diary for that period. All we ar waiting on is for UA to approve our already purchased ticket to Brazil to now be changed to MIA-SCL-MIA instead!

Night of August 15 we may fly instead to MIA and try to get to SeaDoo4 a day earlier.

og .. thanks for the input. Why not join us this time around?

i Agree with the cash bit. But we could only use credit cards at some souvenir shops, never found a restaurant that took them. But there are many "quaint" good restaurants. Look especially for the French on by the docks, N part of the town.