Easter Island in 3 Days 🗿
3 Days
-Chile
By Jackie Swayze
Jul 9, 2025
Easter Island (also known as Rapa Nui) is a remote island in the middle of the Pacific, over 2000km from any land. This island, now owned by Chile, is most famous for its iconic moai statues 🗿 that scatter the island.
The island is pretty small, at only 163.7 square kilometers, so it’s very doable to see a lot of historic and cultural sites in a very short amount of time.
Most of the island is part of Rapa Nui National Park. Visitors to the park are required to have a local guide with them. I booked a private guide through Green Island Tours and I highly recommend! You can book here: https://tripadvisor.tpx.lt/BgGi3G1l
For a more in-depth break down of visiting Easter Island, check out my blog post: https://maximizingmypto.com/easter-island-in-3-days/
Recommended Stays
Inaki Uhi Hotel
This small hotel is centrally located in the town of Hanga Roa with convenient access to restaurants, grocery stores, the beach, and souvenir shops. The included breakfast was a particular highlight, with made-to-order eggs & bacon and a buffet of local foods. They also included round trip transportation between the airport and hotel.
Click here to book: https://booking.tpx.lt/bxPAtU6H
Day 1
There is only 1 flight per day to/from Easter Island. Operated by LATAM, the flight from Santiago lands on Rapa Nui around 12:30PM, giving you the afternoon to explore.
We arrived and were picked up at the airport by our hotel where we went and dropped our bags. We then found lunch nearby before our guide picked us up for a 1/2 day tour of the island.
Centro de Visitantes Orongo
Day 2
After breakfast at your hotel, day 2 is a full day tour of the island, including Anakena beach, the iconic Rano Raraku quarry, and a visit to Tongariki. Not only is a guide required at most of those sites, but they’re incredible at providing the historical context of how these sites came to be, their importance, and how conservation continues to shape them.
If the skies are clear in the evening, you can do a star gazing tour. Easter Island has very little light pollution, making it once of the best places in the world for viewing the night sky.
Restaurante Julio Calderon Chave
Ahu Tongariki
Rapa Nui Stargazing
Day 3
Day 3 is an early wake up call to drive back to Ahu Tongariki for sunrise. Seeing the sun come up over the beach and behind the 15 moai statues is incredible and worth losing some sleep.
From there, we jumped right into another 1/2 day tour, covering sites like Puna Pau (the top knot quarry), Ahu Akivi, and a series of lava tubes that people used to live in during the island’s civil war.
If you want to get a souvenir passport stamp, you can do so at the visitor center. We had enough time to stop by there, watch sea turtles in the cove, and grab lunch before heading to the airport to catch our 2:45PM flight back to Santiago.
Ahu Tongariki
Ahu Akivi
