How to Get to Easter Island For Less Than $50 Per Day

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Often described as mysterious, enigmatic, and intriguing, Easter Island (Rapa Nui to its native Polynesian inhabitants) is a destination that allures visitors with its well-conserved native culture and the legacy left behind by its Rapa Nui civilization.

But it can be a bit tricky figuring out how to get to Easter Island. Its remote location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has played an important part in preserving its compelling and unique culture that spans over a thousand years – including its impressive moai statues.

Just to put in context how remote Rapa Nui is, the nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, 2,075km away, and the nearest continental point lies in Chile, 3,512km away.

But visiting Easter Island, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, should not be as expensive as it sounds.

In fact, I managed to travel to Easter Island for almost a week for a lot cheaper than I expected, spending an average of $46.79 per day (not including the flight).

Here’s how you can enjoy the best of Easter Island for less than $50 per day and what you shouldn’t miss while there.

How to Go to Easter Island

Without a doubt, the cheapest way to get to Easter Island will be by flying from Santiago, Chile.

Still, the flight to Easter Island will be the biggest expense of your trip.  At the moment, LATAM Airlines is the only airline that flies to Easter Island, and since there’s no competition, expect to pay anything from $300 to $1,200 for a round-trip flight.

But how do you get to easter island on a budget? Your best bet on how to visit Easter Island for cheaper is to follow LATAM Airlines’ newsletter for deals. They often give 15% to 20% (or more) off their domestic flights in Chile (yes, this is a domestic flight) or on specific routes.

This was the way I found my flights for $505 to spend Easter Sunday on Easter Island! What better time to be there?!

Well, upon getting to Easter Island, I found out they don’t do anything special for Easter Sunday, so it’s just like any other day.

LAN flies to Easter Island once a day, except for Tuesdays, and also does a stopover on the island on the way to Tahiti (once a week).

Alternatively, you can find cheap flights to Easter Island by searching on Skyscanner and Kayak. These are my two go-to flight aggregators since they often display cheaper flights than all other sites.

How Long to Stay in Easter Island

Even though the highlights of Easter Island can be done in one day if you rent a car or take a tour, I highly recommend staying there for 4 or 5 full days, at least. Why? There is much to do and see on the island that goes beyond the moai statues.

For example, two of the budget multi-day trips listed here spend 4 days on Easter Island.

I’ll go more in-depth below, but activities include caves, hiking, biking, diving, and more.

Finding Accommodation on Easter Island

Accommodation on Easter Island varies from budget to luxury, but budget accommodation is still slightly more expensive than the norm.

For hostels, expect to pay $25+ per person per night for a dorm bed and $40 per person per night for a private room (as found through Booking.com).

Hotels, naturally, are much more expensive. Some hostels also offer camping grounds – some with tents provided and some with “bring your own tent.”

Originally, my intention was to couchsurf in Hanga Roa (the “only” town on the island), and to my surprise, several hosts were willing to host surfers.

The reason I didn’t couch surf was that I happened to meet five other travelers in Chile that were also traveling to Easter Island. One benefit of making friends on the road was that between all of us, we decided to rent a house through Airbnb. Honestly, this was the cheapest and best option for all of us.

We ended up paying $13.64 per night per person for a three-bedroom house. It had two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a nice patio, and all the amenities we needed for the week. Plus, it was just a 15-minute walking distance from the main street.

I seriously recommend using Airbnb to find cheap accommodation in Hanga Roa. You’ll find cheap options that might be better than staying in a hostel, especially if you’re traveling as a couple or as a group.

From my research, Airbnb and Vrbo averaged $18 to $25 a night per person on most accommodation options.

Since the airport is just in town, most accommodations offer airport pick-up and drop-off. There’s no need to coordinate your arrival time since there’s only one flight per day.

A few budget accommodation options with excellent reviews I recommend checking out:

• Inaki Uhi Hotel – BOOK HERE
• Camping y Hostal Tipanie Moana – BOOK HERE
• Hotel Boutique La Perouse – BOOK HERE
• Cabañas Christophe – BOOK HERE

Moving Around Easter Island

Hanga Roa is small enough to walk if you fancy it, but should you need a ride, you can take a taxi for about 2,000 CLP ($2.44) to most points in town. You also have the option of renting bikes, motorbikes, and cars to move around the island.

If you rent a car, you might be able to see most of the highlights in one day! It only takes about 30 minutes or less to get from one corner of the island to the other.

Through our Airbnb host, we rented a car that fit six people for 55,000 CLP (about $67) for a day, but should you want a smaller car, you will be able to find it for 40,000 CLP ($48) at the car rental center on the main street and even as low as 20,000 CLP ($24) if you rent it through an accommodation host/hostel.

For the lower price, you might need to tap into the art of bargaining a bit.

Biking is very easy on the Polynesian island since the terrain is mostly flat, and the hills are gentle. In fact, biking to the beach was one of my favorite experiences there (more on this soon).

We rented bikes for a day for 8,000 CLP ($10) each. Should you decide to bike the island instead of driving, you might need two days of sightseeing – one for the southern route and one for the northern route (unless you’re a fast biker with a lot of stamina!).

Eating Cheap During Your Easter Island Visit

The most important part of eating cheap on Easter Island is being able to cook, so make sure you have a kitchen in your hostel/hotel/Airbnb rental/etc. It is essential you buy your groceries in Santiago before flying to Easter Island.

This includes all produce, meats, pasta, seasoning, etc. Between the six of us, we brought two boxes full of food to last the duration of our stay.

This alone helped us save a lot of money since food on Easter Island is really expensive.

NOTE: On your flight to Easter Island, you’re allowed to check two bags for free. One of those bags should be your food box.

Should you need to buy a few extra things once on the island (as we did, there are several “panaderias” and local shops that sell all essentials (but at a higher price – like $2 for six eggs).

Should you need to eat out, empanadas are the cheapest food you’ll find around, at about $5 for an empanada of decent size.

I recommend heading to Carrito Popatiri, close to the waterfront on Policarpo Toro Street. Also, Panaderia Maná is great a option for cheap food and snacks, mostly in the form of empanadas, fried snacks, and pastries.

What You Shouldn’t Miss… the Moai!

I’ll start with the obvious… the moai statues! It is the main reason many people visit Easter Island. There are statues all around the island, so you will see them everywhere you go.

There are 887 Easter Island heads found in all stages, from unfinished, to well-preserved, to mostly destroyed. The moai are monolithic human statues carved between 1,250 and 1500 AD.

The moai are considered to be the “living faces” of deified ancestors. They look inland towards the clan that created them as a sign of protection.

During their peak, the Rapa Nui population soared to 15,000 people. Unfortunately, due to the deforestation created by their own cultural production – the moai – their civilization declined (due to famine).

This caused their population to reduce to 3,000 by the time it was rediscovered by the Dutch in 1722 – precisely on April 5th, Easter Sunday – hence the name.

For years, the production and transportation of the moai were a mystery to archeologists. Still, the Rapa Nui ingenuity has been slowly revealed through studies and clues left behind by the ancient civilization all across Easter Island.

For more information on Easter Island, I highly recommend reading this encyclopedia page.

While you will see moai statues all around the island (mostly along the coastline), you must not miss visiting the Rapa Nui National Park.

This was the main moai quarry and the place where you’ll see them in all their glory and in all stages of production. Here you’ll see all shapes, expressions, and even a form of sculptural evolution between the early and latest moais produced.

In fact, about half of the moai of Easter Island are located in this national park. Also, if you have the chance, hike up to the Rano Raraku crater to get an impressive view of most of the island.

Rapa Nui is one of two national parks on the island (the other being Orongo National Park), so there’s a fee of $60 for both parks.

Now, when I went there, Easter of 2015, there was an island-wide protest against the CONAF (Chilean National Parks Agency).

Locals “kicked CONAF out” of the island and are now managing the parks. Locals are not asking for the payment of an entrance ticket, but they do ask you to pay for a local guide in order to access the parks.

Since this confusing situation was fresh for everyone, we didn’t know we needed a guide, so when we were asked about our guide we played dumb and were let through to see the parks – no tickets paid, no guide hired. We saw all the moai sites for free!

Depending on when you go, you might need to either pay for a guide or pay for tickets, so Google the most current situation before you go.

Should you need to hire a guide, I found out that some go as cheap as $10 per person for a day (not including car rental), and others go as expensive as $170 for a day (no matter how many people in the group).

Another site not to miss is Tongariki. This is one of the most iconic sites on the island with its 15 moai standing next to each other on an Ahu (ceremonial platform). Watch the sunrise there — it is marvelous!

Funny enough, in April, sunrise is around 8:30 am, so there is no need to wake up too early!

From Tongariki, you can jump straight into Rano Raraku, and from Rano Raraku, you can drive up and back to Hanga Roa to see other moai sites like Taharoa, Anakena, A Kivi, and more.

Seriously, you’ll be moai’d out by the end of the day.

And, don’t miss watching the sunset in Tahai, where five moai stand on an Ahu right at the edge of the island. This site is right on Hanga Roa, so you can walk there easily.

Beyond Moais… The Beauty of Easter Island

While the moais take all the attention, Easter Island has much more to offer. Anakena not only has moais, but it is also one of the best beaches on the island.

According to oral tradition, Anakena served as the first settlement on the island. While I don’t consider Easter Island a beach destination, it is worth it to visit this beach and spend some time there.

I went there twice, once by car and once biking, and I never saw more than 30 people on the beach. It is quite chill! If you bike there from Hanga Roa, it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there (20 kilometers).

Also close to Anakena is a few sites with petroglyphs left by the early Rapa Nui civilizations. They depict several marine scenes that include fishing, the use of canoes, and several marine animals.

Some of the best petroglyph sites are Orongo, Papa Vaka, and Ana Kai Tangata.

You can also hike to Volcano Terevaka (the highest point on the island at 507 meters above sea level… so cute!). From there, you can see the entire island in a 360-degree view. Most people don’t know that Easter Island has a decent network of caves, and some of them can be visited.

Ask your host about a tour to the caves so they can take you. Some of them are really hard to find, so you must know where to look.

Ana Kakenga is one cave from where you can watch the sunset since it has an opening looking towards the sea.

Remember I mentioned there are two national parks on the island? The second park is Orongo, and it is all about the natural uniqueness of the Ranu Kau volcanic caldera and the stone village and ceremonial center found at the edge of the caldera.

Here’s where some of the ancient Rapa Nui lived, in a collection of low, sod-covered, windowless, round-walled buildings. Even the doors are very low and small to reduce the wind (and cold) that enters the dwelling space.

Also, from Orongo, you can get a great view of Hanga Roa and most of the island. You’ll see how beautiful it is!

Should you be interested in seeing a traditional Rapa Nui (or other Polynesian culture) dancing show, you can head to Vaitemiki in Hanga Roa. They offer free shows on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. (at the time of writing).

There are other shows that include dinner (for an entrance fee), but you should ask around for current locations and times.

For divers, even though I didn’t dive, I found out that scuba diving there is not that expensive at around $120 for two dives. I can’t say how good or bad they are.

If you want to see marine turtles, walk along the water towards Orongo or simply sit at the restaurant next to Pea Beach (right in front of the football/soccer field in Hanga Roa) and you’ll probably see a turtle or two swimming there.

Can You Do Tours on Easter Island?

Sure you can, but unless you want an in-depth explanation of each location, you won’t need it. You can tour the island for “free” by researching each site beforehand and by biking or driving to each location on your own.

Should you still want a tour, I don’t recommend booking any tours before arriving. You can find them easily in town and a lot cheaper.

Should You Want To…

• Get an Easter Island stamp on your passport at the post office in Hanga Roa.
• Buy souvenirs at the artisanal market in Hanga Roa. Not the cheapest ones, but cheaper than at the airport and national parks.
• Wifi? Don’t count on it. Luckily my Airbnb rental had decent wifi, but not a single other restaurant or place we visited on the island had working wifi.

So, to sum up how you can do Easter Island with a backpacker’s budget:

• Follow LAN for their latest deals or keep an eye on their fares.
• Couchsurf or rent a room/house with Airbnb or Vrbo. You can camp too. Or, book cheap accommodation with Booking.com.
• Buy all your food in Santiago and fly it in.
• Eat at Carrito Popatiri and Panaderia Maná, for tasty and affordable Easter Island food.
• If you’re traveling with more people, rent a car for a day. Should you be alone, rent a bike for two days.
• Try to go without a guide, or get a cheap guide if required.
• Don’t do a tour if you are capable of planning your trip on your own. Besides this manual on how to travel to Easter Island, this guidebook is also highly recommended.
• Alternatively, check out these half-day, full-day, and multi-day tours here. They are excellent budget alternatives that take off the planning stress yet allow you to travel independently.
• Lastly, do not travel without travel insurance. I normally use HeyMondo or SquareMouth. I highly recommend them.

So, can you visit Easter Island on a budget? Yes! As you can see, Easter Island is not an exclusive destination for intrepid travelers and big pockets.

It is much more accessible than you think, and all you need to know is how to do it on a budget. And now you know!