Hello All:

Is this crazy to try to cram in a Galapagos cruise (7/8 days) and five days on Easter Island over a 18-day trip?
Has anyone tried to do this?

I think I would do the Galapagos as you have planned and then see some areas in Quito and surrounding area.

If you still have the wanderlust in your soul I would think of doing the Sacred Vally and Machu Picchu.

Easter Island is scarcly populated and a long way off.

It is 2000 miles from Chile coastline.
The Galapagos is 600 miles off Ecuador.

Percy

Hi Percy:

Thanks for your comments. You are probably right. I have already done Peru extensively and love isolated places - so that part sounds great - but Easter Island is far away from the Galapagos, so maybe combining it during one trip is ambitious...

Another choice could be going to Buenos Aires ..then Iguazu Falls.

I was there in March...both places are great.

Percy

The flights would be awful. You'd have to fly back to Lima or Quito, then to Santiago, and then on to Easter Island. Better to combine Easter Island with Chile at a later date.

Yeah, we checked it out and see that it would be Atlanta to Quito, then Quito to Santiago - Santiago to Easter Island. Then fly back to Santiago then to Quito- where we would take the Galapagos Cruise.

The issue is that we have pretty much done all of South America we want to do (except for one more time to Brazil) and do not plan to go anywhere near SA for the next 5-6 years at least. There are too many other places we want to see more....so it's pretty much now or maybe in 5-6 years.

Who knows what will happen between now and then, so I hate to put it off. It's a place I want to visit, but kept putting it off.

We have done a lot of crazy long flights before - we just got back last weekend from Mongolia and China and that was 24 hours of flying back (5 airports), so that is not the issue.

Hmmm....I need to really think about this..thanks again for your input

We did a 4 night cruise in the Galapogos combined with Equador, and 3 nights in Easter Island combined with Chile, on separate trips. The number of nights in each were quite enough for us.

Unless you definitely want your stated number of days as above, you could visit some other part of Equador or Chile that you have not seen.

Hi Jed:

You are right. I think Easter Island would be 3-4 days. I just hate to go all the way out there for 2 days. Galapagos has to be 8 days for sure - because we want to do some extensive photography of the animals and need more time to see more islands and habitats. I would definitely stay longer in Quito to see the city and surrounding areas, but we have to consider flying times also.
I am going to contact an agent this week and start narrowing down the schedule.

I will post what we end up with. I am sure we will change it all around before it's finalized.

Tell me what you thought about Easter Island - worth the trouble of going?