I snagged a cheap flight to Easter Island (Rapa Nui).
This is my multi-part guide to everything I did, how I did it, and what it cost.
Part 1: Getting to Rapa Nui & Where to stay
Part 2: Beyond the Moai: Exploring Rapa Nui, Its National Park & Statutes
Part 3: Food, Entertainment, Getting a Tattoo in Rapa Nui đYou Are Here
Part 4: My Solo Travel Easter Island itinerary & Budget
Food
I love to try local food *but* sometimes you just want a plain staple from your life, especially after 5+ weeks of travelling . So, that being saidâŚ.
I ate a lot of my own cooking in Rapa Nui.
The prepared food I did eat was generally good, but very similar to foods most would be familiar with and very much a casual South American cuisine.
The prices for groceries werenât as astronomically high as I expected. Obviously imported food such as American brand cake mixes or European pasta had a steep premium, but the basics were affordable to a Canadian traveller budget.
Restaurant and cafe food, in fact, seemed to be higher quality for a similar price point compared to Patagonia which I had been in the 4 days prior to this.
One trip to the grocery store I bought a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, and 2 yogurts and some bananas for 14,000CLP ($20.52 CAD/$14.39 USD). If you are reading this and gasping right now, if I summed up the same purchase in Nova Scotia right now, without sale shopping, it would come out to at least $15.00 CAD. Nova Scotia is not a tiny island isolated in the South Pacific.
Two of the three places I ate I felt were VERY good, and one was meh.
Le-Frits Restobar – Cevicheria
This was like a pub with a lot of comfortable patio seating on one of the main touristy streets right in Hanga Roa. Fries with ceviche and beer $40 CAD / $28USD
Napoâea
This was a patio setup with a view from the ocean that had a few vendors sharing the same seating area. It was a grea experience with lots of variety. We had come to celebrate a birthday and were there as a group. Family pizzas are 20,000 CLP ($29,31 CAD / $20.55 USD)
This cost me $45ish CAD. This was shared food with drinks and 2 birthday meals covered split by the rest us.
Restaurante Julio Calderon Chave
This was healthy and adequate but meh. HOWEVER. This was at the most touristy spot possible – at the entrance to Rano Raraku. It 100% focused on tourists. We also ate as part of our entire tour group, and places canât do their best in big groups, to be fair!
Entertainment
Tattooing is deeply woven into Polynesian culture and the word comes from polynesian languages. Because of this, many people choose to get a tattoo when they go to Rapa Nui.
That includes me!
I have never gotten a tattoo before but I threw caution to the wind and got a small tattoo from one of the internationally known tattooists who live on the island. There are a few tattoo parlours on the island and if you are looking for something simple, I would just go with a place that is available and has good google reviews.
In Canada you often have to make appointments well in advance and I had reached out to the tattoo studio I wanted to go to months in advance on instagram and was simply told to pop in the shop when I get there. As luck would have it, my two friends from the hostel also had the same plan as me and we ended up going together.
To show you how interconnected the indigenous people are on Rapa Nui, on the first night on the island I was at a dance show (run by the family of the couple who ran our hostel).
This very famous tattooist was in that dance troupe. My new hostel acquaintances leaned over and said ‘oh, we are getting a tattoo from that guy on Monday!” What a coincidence, that was my plan too!
While generally it can be discouraged to get tattoos of symbols and other cultural references that aren’t your own, the general sentiment within this area of Polynesia seems to be that they still do encourage people to experience this part of their culture as they take a lot of pride in their history as a birthplace of tattooing. That decision is obviously up to you. You aren’t forced to get a tattoo đ
Rapa Nui Dance Shows
There are a few troupes that put on shows of cultural dancing. I was invited along with a few other people from the hostel to go to Kari Kari (Kari Kari Ballet Cultural Rapa Nui).
The show offers a bar and face painting beforehand, multiple dances and interpretation, and then a few opportunities for audience participation. It was a great experience that didnât feel too long, and was very upbeat. Kari Kari is a family owned group which also showed how small the island and indigenous groups are – the tattooist who I had decided to get a tattoo with was IN the show.
This was one of those moments where you are exhausted with jet leg and almost delusional and you’ve jus t been going through the motions of the day and then come to full consciousness and realize “OH. I am on Rapa Nui. Covered in face paint. Watching a show. I AM ON EASTER ISLAND RIGHT NOW WHAT IS MY LIFE.
The show was WAY bigger in the amount of production and dancers than I anticipated based on the venue and the description. It was excellent and offered a few opportunities for audience participation and learning to dance with anyone who wanted to go up and dance and take photos with the performers at the end. The show is 3-4 nights a week with drinks and face painting. I got my ticket for free as a gift from the hostel owner, but it costs 35,000+ CLP ($50 CAD/ $36 USD) without dinner and they also offer a premium dinner and reserved seat package for 95,000 CLP ( $135 CAD/$95USD)
This is not the only show on the island, one other package that is easy to book online is the Rapa Nui Ancestral Dinner with Show-that is a buffet with good reviews.
But what did my trip cost?!?!
Before this
Part 1: Getting to Rapa Nui & Where to stay
Part 2: Beyond the Moai: Exploring Rapa Nui, Its National Park & Statutes
Still to come
Part 4: My Solo Easter Island itinerary & Budget