Like many people, going to Easter Island was something that I had always dreamed of ever since I first saw a picture of one of their towering stone statues. The remoteness of the island and the mystery of the moai always intrigued me and I wished I would make it there one day.
The opportunity to go finally presented itself in January 2023 when I was in Argentina and was finally able to secure flights to Easter Island from Santiago after searching for a few months. Although I had no idea what to expect from Easter Island, at the same time, it was almost exactly what I expected. The town of Hanga Roa was full of low-slung wooden buildings housing touristy shops and restaurants and everything had a very low-key vibe to it. The waterfront was gorgeous and you could easily walk to an oceanfront park and just past that, one of the most impressive moai sites.
I found the people of Easter Island to be extremely friendly and helpful and the dogs that roam the streets may be some of the cutest gentle giants you will ever see. While the food was a bit hit or miss, the ice cream was fantastic and they even have their own locally-produced craft beer. As the icing on the cake, most of the other travelers that you meet there are very nice.
However, in saying all that, there was one thing that really left a bad taste in my mouth about Easter Island and that was their new policy that you can only enter the archaeological sites with a guide. While this is completely reasonable if you are going somewhere particularly fragile, it is a bit different when you are simply looking at stone statues from 30 meters away. The reasoning that they give is that tourists were defacing the statues but I find it quite hard to believe that anyone would spent the time and money to get there and then suddenly decide to carve their name into it. Plus, the median age of foreign tourists there seems to be about 60.
The policy makes it extremely difficult to see much of the island and the unprofessional behavior of the guides themselves creates a very stressful situation where tourists are forced to spend a substantial amount of money for subpar service. I complained to the local tourism board about what was happening and they told me that they have heard the same stories many times and that they are upset about what is happening. They said that the Chilean government handed control over to the indigenous population this year and that it has caused many problems.
Below is a breakdown of how my trip to Easter Island went awry. I would like to preface this by saying that I still had an amazing experience. It could have been much, much better though.
My 5 Day Itinerary
Day 1
On the flight to Easter Island, I met a lovely British couple who, like me, were planning on renting a car to explore the island and asked me if I wanted to join them. Although I had been planning on doing a tour, I figured that it would be much more fun to go with them. Neither of us was completely sure whether or not we needed a guide to explore so we agreed that we would check and decide what to do. We exchanged numbers and said goodbye.
I spent the rest of the evening wandering around the town of Hanga Roa and went to see my first moai located just on the edge of town.
That night, I got a text saying that they were renting a car for the next day and had found a guide for 150,000 pesos for the following day. I told them that that sounded great and figured we were all set for day 3. I then got a message later that night saying that the guide had messaged them saying that the price was actually 260,000 pesos. We decided to cancel on him as it seemed dodgy and headed out the next day as planned.
Day 2
We all messaged a few guides before heading out to get more prices and see who was available, picked up the rental car, and hit the road for the day. Knowing that we didn’t have a guy, we expected not to be able to get into the sites but we figured that we could spend time at Anakena Beach and a few other places where we were free to roam.
We started off by visiting a volcano, a massive hill topped by a gaping crater. The views from the top were amazing. Next, we made our way to Anakena Beach, stopping at a few sites along the way to see if we could get in without a guide. Luckily, we were able to see XX and XX by joining other tours and saved the “big sites” for when we could finally get a guide.
Anakena Beach was a lovely spot with sparkling blue water, a tiny crescent-shaped beach, and a restaurant serving the best empanada I have ever had in my life. As I floated in the water, I gazed around in wonder thinking about how lucky I was to finally have made it to Easter Island.
Day 3
The next morning, we decided to make use of the last few hours that we had with the rental car and set off at 6 am to watch the sunrise over Tongariki. It was raining cats and dogs as we left Hanga Roa but by the time we got there, the skies had cleared up a bit and we were able to see a beautiful, if cloudy, sunrise over the platform lined with 15 moai set amongst a breathtaking coastal backdrop.
We made our way back to town around 9 am, hoping to secure a guide for the day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible but we were able to find one for the following day. I spent the rest of the day bouncing around the cafes and shops before I met the British couple for a lovely sunset dinner at Tahia.
Day 4
The next morning, we met our guide to start our tour. Despite having arrived four days earlier and paid $80 for an entry ticket, we were finally able to enter the sites. Despite our guide being extremely young, inexperienced, and unable to say more than a sentence or two in English, we decided to make the most of the day. Our guide was unable to explain much about the sites but it was still enjoyable to finally see something that we had invested so much time and money to get to.
Day 5
We decided to try giving the sunrise another go and set off once again at 6 am to go to Tongariki. When we arrived, we were told that we couldn’t enter without a guide. I asked the park employee why we had to pay $80 for a ticket when we weren’t allowed to go inside anywhere. Just then, a random tour guide came up and began shouting at me in Spanish saying that she would never do this in my country and, I am guessing, that I was in her country and that I should respect their rules. While in theory, I agree with that statement, it is hard to when you know what they are doing is unfair and unreasonable.
What went wrong….
Looking back, it probably would have been better to just go on a full-day guided tour like I initially planned. However, there were downsides to that in the fact that I would have only been able to see a few of the sites and would have missed Orongo which was by far one of the most interesting places. The only way to have been able to see that was to book an additional half-day tour or pay $120 for a private tour. I also would have been left sitting in Hanga Roa for three full days with nothing to do (trust me, there isn’t very much to do in that town).
Since most people stay at least 4 days on Easter Island, doing all of the sites on a rushed one-day tour leaves you with quite a few days to fill with your only option being to hang around town, go scuba diving if you have your PADI, or bike or drive around the island but not being able to actually stop anywhere besides the beach.
It is clear that the new policy is in place to put more money into the pockets of a few select locals who could call themselves guides but it doesn’t seem to have been particularly well thought out. It was hard to secure a guide when the flights are operating at about half capacity and it will get worse when they go back to flying daily. The guides are already commanding very high prices for poor service and it is also likely to get worse as demand increases but supply doesn’t.
Would I go back?
Honestly, probably not until they change the rule about needing a guide.
