Easter Island, Tailor-made Luxury Chile Holidays

Half of the unique and mysterious Easter Island is now a national park. Easter Island is not large, just 24 km long and 12 km wide. When you visit you will find rolling grassy hills, a few white sandy beaches and a fairly windswept environment, but one thing is certain, you will come here and wonder at the bizarre moai.

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The moai are the huge stone statues, up to 9 metres high, created by the Rapa nui people. They are scattered over the whole island and over 800 moai have been catalogued.

No one really knows why the moai, pronounced ‘mow-eye’, are there and what they represent but theories abound. It is almost permanently windy here. Winds tend to be strongest during the summer when city officials put up ropes in the downtown area to assist with unique wind currents created by the buildings?!

The Rapa Nui were Polynesians, known for their sophisticated architecture and complex hierarchical society. Between the 10th and 16th centuries they cut the moai out of flanks of the island’s Eastern volcano, Rano Raraku, where a particular type of dark compressed ash is found.

Today, half-carved moai are still visible in the rock. Once finished it is thought that the figures were transported in the same way as the monoliths of Stonehenge, using log rollers and traction.

Visit Easter Island as part of our suggested itinerary Santiago, Atacama & Easter Island, 14 days from £1,759 pp excluding international flights. Find out more...

The explora en Rapa Nui hotel is located on a hill in the Te Miro Oone sector, on 9.6 hectares of land that faces the sea. Explora en Rapa Nui is situated in the southwestern zone of the island, 5.6 km from Hanga Roa – the only town on the island – and it acts as a perfect base for exploring this attractive and mysterious island. More…

Contact us by email or contact us by telephone on 0207 622 1116 and ask to speak to a consultant about Easter Island.