JohnnyColombia

Thanks for the advice OskiBear and Middle_Seat

I actually goofed up my reservation and probably ought to have had more daytime on the island so it is reassuring to hear that 2 nights is workable.

fti

I just arrived on Easter Island yesterday. Haven't rented a car yet, though I might tomorrow or the following day. The lady who runs the place I am staying said Oceania is the cheapest car rental place in town.

I hiked up to Orongo this morning. Since I love hiking and since the max elevation gain is something like 300m or 1000ft it is not a hard hike. You can hitch a ride back to town but I took a different route back walking.

The car rental will give you flexibility. But if you are just looking for a beach, you can find that a lot closer than Easter Island. The main reason I might not rent a car is that I am looking at doing one-way hikes and having a car would be an impediment. So I might just take a taxi.

ylin42

Hello all,

I'll be visiting Easter Island in mid-August (5D/4N), and this thread has given me some great advice! I still have a couple questions though-

1) Sounds like the consensus is to find accommodations upon arrival. I've found a couple nice-looking hostels with good reviews for ~$60/night. If I just show up, what kind of discount can I expect? If it isn't much I thought it might be easier to book ahead to guarantee a nice place.

2) Will my entel chip (purchased in Santiago) work on Easter Island? I saw someone asked this previously but did not see an answer?

Thanks!

xzolian

I negotiated via email for lodging, rental car, and tour before arriving with Paul from http://tekarera.com/enaccommo/index.htm . It worked out for me and was fairly affordable.

We arrived early in the AM and I didn't want the hassle of finding a place.

-Matt

Karaokemonk

Does anyone know if LAN collect the Gringo Tax {$178 collected at the airport} on flights from Lima to Easter Island or is that only on certain internal flights in Peru?
Thanks

LAX_Esq

Can someone help me with a good daily itinerary for 5D/4N. I arrive at 5am on day 1 and leave at 4pm on day 5.

It's hard to tell how long things take, so I'd appreciate help in structuring my visit. I'm okay deciding some things out on the fly, but I'd like to figure some of it out in advance since we intend to rent a 4x4 for at least part of time.

What I'm looking to get out of Easter Island: For one, I'm into photography and like to take in sites slowly, so I'll probably end up spending more time (1.5-2x) what the typical drive-by tour bus visitor would spend staring at any given ahu/maoi. Secondly, it seems like one can drive around and see all the maoi in well under 4.5 days, so I think it makes sense to get in some hiking. Hikes that seem interesting include the Rano Kau hike, climbing up Maunga Terevaka, and the Northern Coast trail (Te Peu to Anakena)... and perhaps even climbing up Maunga Pukatikei. How long will these hikes take? Are they worth the time and does it make sense to do several hikes, or are they redundant of each other?

Any help sketching out a rough itinerary would be most appreciated. Thanks!

Middle_Seat

Easter Island is a pretty small place, so you will be able to visit any and everything at least twice in 4.5 days. There is no fresh water away from the town, so you will have to carry what you need. There are few shade trees and no tall mountains.

Easter Island isn't so barren as the Pacific island of Tarawa, as described in Sex Lives of Cannibals by Maarten Troost (a hilarious book, well worth the read), but it doesn't have much to offer beyond the moai's.

The very first post in this thread, by someone who also spent 5 days there, has a lot of good information.

fti

I am very much into hiking and photography as well. You might be interested in reading my trip journal to see what I did with 4 nights:

http://www.getjealous.com/fti/journa...er-island.html

Basically I went to Orongo the first full day (hiked there and back - could have taken a taxi back and might have been better to have done that), took a taxi to Rano Raraku the second day and hiked most of the way back, then hiked to Ahu Tepeu and Ahu Akivi the third day (some interesting caves).

Two things I wish I had done were to take a boat ride and to take the hike from the north part of the island back to town (I covered some of that in the Ahu Tepeu day).

If you are renting a vehicle and are into photography I would strongly suggest you consider getting up and out before sunrise. There are some interesting photos you can take of/near the moai around sunrise.

CLTF

I loved easter island but stayed in some dump hotel owned by an aussi called bill and his horrible wife, edith.
They both sucked the fun out of the trip. Stay away.

mhnadel

There are also petroglyphs and caves, as well as the moai.

And barren is hardly the word I'd use to describe Tarawa. (Yes, I have been there.) It would be close to a tropical paradise, in my opinion, if there were any tourist infrastructure, but the Republc of Kiribati is not one of the better functioning parts of the South Pacific.

flugvergnugen

Avid hiker here, and I do think that doing all that hiking is a bit redundant. The Rano Kau hike is the "steepest"/most different in that at the top you walk along the rim of the crater until you reach Orongo. You can easily do this in a 1/2 day at a leisurely rate. Maunga Terevaka we did as a day hike starting in Hanga Roa, up to Ahu Akivi, up to the summit and back, then back along the coast seeing the Ahus and the other sites on they way. We didn't hike to Anakena or on Poike as from a scenery standpoint they are similar to Terevaka. You'd have Poike to yourself, though, but there are no established trails.

For photography, the "popular" things to do are sunrise at Tongariki (which we missed as it was overcast each and every morning we were there), and sunset at Tahai. Tahai was great at the end of our day-hike, since it's basically right in town, but for Tongariki you need a car to get out there early (it's about 18km from Hanga Roa).

Also, right now in "winter" there are much fewer hours of daylight.

Viajero Perpetuo

Should work inside Hanga Roa but don't count on it away from Hanga Roa.

lightangel

came back from Easter Island in May. stayed at mihinoa. car rental probably is cheapest at mihinoa, around 20000 peso per 24 hours. I like hiking, so I felt 1 day car rental would be enough for you to drive along east and north side of the island. They only have manual car, so it took us some time to get familiar.....The last time I drove a manual was 10 years ago.

Middle_Seat

You can see some way cool high-def spherical panoramas of Easter Island at http://www.airpano.ru/files/Easter-Island/2-2

Click on the "high resolution" image that looks like a video, and the panorama will load. It works in both Firefox and Chrome on my Win7 computer.

The site has similar panoramas of a variety of beautiful locations.

ghia74

I have a question for those who have gone souvenir shopping on the island. I know they sell miniature Moai made of stone and wood and am interested in buying one when I get there. I figure with baggage limits the largest I will be able to bring back is about 50 pounds, do they sell stone ones this size and what can I expect to pay.