Easter Island

Currency

Everything on the island is shipped or flown 3,700km, and the prices say so — budget roughly double mainland Chile. Bring pesos from Santiago; the island has one or two exchange points at poor rates. Cards work in the bigger restaurants and tour agencies, and fail often enough that cash matters.

ATMs & cards

Two or three machines in Hanga Roa, all of which run dry at weekends and in high season. Draw pesos on the mainland before you fly and bring more than you plan to spend — there is no way to fix a shortfall out here.

Draw pesos in Santiago before you fly. Prices are roughly double the mainland because everything arrives by plane or ship.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

One of the safest places anyone can travel: a community of 8,000 where everyone knows everyone. The rules that matter are about the site rather than about you — never walk on an ahu platform, never touch a moai, stay on the marked paths, and be aware that these are graves and sacred ground rather than sculptures. Fines are substantial and enforcement is serious. The sea is powerful and there are no lifeguards.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Worth having

• Routine vaccinations up to date
• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid for longer or rural stays

Getting treated

The best in South America alongside Uruguay. Private clinics in Santiago and Punta Arenas are excellent and expect insurance or payment up front; public hospitals treat emergencies. In Torres del Paine you are hours from either, and CONAF rescue is the only help there is.

Tap water is safe in the cities. In Patagonia the risks are exposure and wind rather than anything infectious — hypothermia happens in January.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Fish, and it is superb — tuna, mahi-mahi and kana kana, often served ceviche-style. Umu, food cooked in an earth oven, is the traditional meal and worth arranging once. Everything else on the menu came off a plane, and the bill will show it.

Getting around

• Hire car, scooter or bicycle — the island is 24km long, the roads are decent, and this is how everyone gets around
• Walking — Hanga Roa is small enough, and the coastal path north from town passes several ahu
• Guided tours — a licensed Rapa Nui guide is required at several sites and is worth having at all of them
• Getting here: LATAM flies from Santiago, five and a half hours, and once a week from Tahiti; there is no other way in
• Entry rules are strict — a return ticket, a stay of no more than 30 days, a booking at a registered guesthouse and the FUI entry form filed online before boarding

Must-see

Things to do

• Watch sunrise behind the fifteen moai at Tongariki
• Walk the quarry at Rano Raraku, where the unfinished statues are still in the rock
• Stand on the rim of Rano Kau and see Orongo
• Swim at Anakena, the island’s one proper beach
• Ride a horse across the north coast, where there are no roads
• Buy the national park ticket online before you arrive — it is $80 and valid for ten days

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Rapa Nui

• Hello / goodbyeIoranayo-RAH-na
• Thank youMaururuma-oo-ROO-roo
• How are you?Pehé koe?peh-HEH ko-eh
• Good / wellRiva rivaREE-va REE-va
• Yes / NoÊ / Inaeh / EE-na
• StatueMoaiMO-eye
• Ceremonial platformAhuAH-hoo
• See you laterKa oraka OH-ra

Spanish is the working language and everyone speaks it, but Rapa Nui is Polynesian and closer to Tahitian and Maori than to anything on the mainland — and using it marks you as someone who noticed that this is not simply a piece of Chile. Iorana is said constantly, to everyone, all day.

Religion

Catholic, and increasingly secular

Historically Catholic, with religiosity falling sharply among younger Chileans.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Greet with one kiss on the right cheek between women, or a woman and a man; men shake hands
• Say buenos días on entering a shop and gracias on leaving, every time
• Accept the once — the late-afternoon tea and bread — if offered; refusing reads as cold
• In Patagonia, close every gate behind you; the estancias run sheep and the gates matter

Don't

• Do not assume Chilean Spanish will sound like the Spanish you learned — it is fast, clipped and full of local slang
• Do not bring up Pinochet casually; it divides families and is not small talk
• Do not eat anything with your hands at a table, including pizza and chips — Chileans use cutlery for almost everything
• Do not turn up on time to a private dinner invitation; fifteen to thirty minutes late is expected