Easter Island advice
 

I am planning a trip to Easter Island as a pre-Antarctic excursion in early December for a few days. I am looking for a travel agent to help with plans from Santiago to Easter Island...air, hotel, tour. Does anyone have experience with a good agent to use and/or advice on hotels, tours etc?
As always thanks for your help!

Hi..we just got back from Easter Island a few weeks ago...A travel agent is not necessary.

Firstly, there is only 1 airline currently flying to Easter Island.

www.lan.com

You can book online. Lan is a terrific airline.

We stayed at the Tauraa Hotel

http://www.tauraahotel.cl/home.htm

It is a lovely hotel in the centre of town, and they also do tours, which u can book online.

Edith, the owner of the hotel/guesthouse, is just a lovely person..

There are other hotels of course on the island, but i highly recommend this place, as it is clean and friendly.

Easter Island is just amazing, we just loved it..

I actually just booked four nights at Tauraa Hotel for Jan. 2009 (based partly on recommendations on this board, and also as a "pre-Antarctic excursion").

TracyB: Do you think it's worth it to rent a car? While I assume we'd do some organized touring (e.g., through the hotel), I think we'd like to explore the island a fair amount on our own. How easy is that? Thanks.

I would have loved to rent a car, but we didn't have enough time...It would be great to have a few days to do your own thing after u get the tours out of the way..So i think u should!!

Thanks for the advice. :)

You will love Easter Island btw, it is just fantastic..

In fact, i just posted some pic's if u would like to see them!!

http://web.mac.com/tracybassett/Site...nd,_Chile.html

Those pictures are great (the Moai are fascinating to look at)! Thanks. I also appreciate your taking a photo of Explora, since my travel agent was pushing for us to book there. (However, since we're staying at Explora in Atacama and Patagonia, we decided that Tauraa was more than fine for Easter Island.)

Slightly off-topic, I see you went to Bariloche. We're planning on spending 3 nights/2 days there after our Antarctica cruise, and are trying to pick a hotel. Where did you stay? Our TA is pushing Llao Llao and Las Balsas, but Fodors people seem to recommend the Design Suites quite a bit (which is also cheaper). Any thoughts? Thanks.

Explora was gorgeous, but well beyond my budget!!!

I can't help u out with a hotel in Bariloche, as we stayed in a real tourist class hotel, called HOTEL Aconcagua..It was nice, but not the type of hotel u would be looking for.

Bariloche is really nice..There are ton's of chocolate shops, so watch out!!!

Hope u enjoy your Antarctica cruise, that will be quite the trip..

We had to decide between Atacama and Easter Island, so we chose Easter Island!!

Thanks very much. Glad it was a great trip.

Flights don't go out every day, so keep that in mind when making plans.

Also, I stayed at the Hotel Manavai, which was nice, but average in price. It included two tours in the package deal, which covered most of the major sites to see.

I rented a bike, and it took me about an hour and a half to bike across the whole island to the beach. It was a bit more work than I wanted, but it made it nice to experience the island. However, for some of the statues, they're off dirt roads, which a car or tour group would be better than bike or on foot.

Thank you all for your input, suggestions and pictures...fantastic!

TracyB, your pictures are great. I'm leaving in two weeks for Easter Island (flying from JFK via Tahiti) and am also staying at Tauraa.

Surprisingly, it was only 70,000 American Airlines miles to fly JFK via Tahiti to Easter Island.