travel to Peru and Easter Island

I can't help you with Easter Island, I have never been there.

I do love Peru, it is my favorite South American country.

Lots to see around Lima as well as Cusco. The Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu is amazing.

We did a great tour of Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu with PeruAgency.com in 2019. It was a four day PRIVATE tour with our own guide/driver. Cost was $799 per person. We had to pay for our airfare from Lima to Cusco, which wasn't much.

I would not try to do Peru on my own. Take a tour. Compare what you get for what $$.

My son and his friends did a longer tour of Peru that included the places you want to see. It was with Gate 1 travel. He said it was a great tour and cheaper than others that he checked.

mfz123pfister,
In 2015 we went to Chile, and flew from Santiago to Easter Island. I don't know if there are flights from Peru. Easter Island is part of Chile. (Just to be sure, are you thinking of the Galapagos, part of Ecuador?) We had a comfortable flight in a plane with many locals, who seemed to have been visiting the mainland for shopping/stocking up. The island has a Unesco/Chilean protected status. We stayed at Aukara B and B, which was lovely, and a very reasonable walking distance to the main street of town. We wandered all over town and to the museum. Moai were nearby and you could easily get close enough for pictures. We also took a local tour that went around the island and visited more sites of moai, and the moai "nursery." One day we hired a cab to drive us to another site and return to pick us up. It was not necessary to pay to enter anywhere that I recall, except maybe the museum. It is not like our national parks such as Yosemite, with entrance gates and rangers. We did not hire a tour for our entire stay. I would say our visit was more like visiting the big island of Hawaii, with some rules regarding the moai sites as the rules regarding the volcanic areas on Hawaii. We are so happy we made the trip there. It is unique, and a place with a history both tragic, mysterious and fascinating! I hope you get to go, but it would be best to fly from Santiago.

Thank you! I'd checked with PeruAgency.com, but never received a response back? It was at the holidays though, so they might have bene busy. I just checked on Gate1, and it's a little more expensive the Inca Expert Travel, plus it's booked in June (when I was planning to go). But thank you for both suggestions. If anyone out there has had experience with Inca Expert Travel specifically, and can share, that would be terrific! Thank you!

It sounds like I can do Easter Island on my own, which is a relief, because tour companies charge a lot for that leg of the journey (not including the flight from Santiago). So while I'm not willing to do Peru on my own, Easter Island sounds manageable. Thank you!

I think there may be some out of date/misinformation above.

There's only one way to get to/from Easter Island, on LATAM Airlines, from Santiago, Chile. It is said that you can save some money if you buy your ticket off the Chilean website for the airline, not the US one. Still, not exactly cheap, but it's a monopoly, highly restricted, and probably not about to loosen up AFAICT. There used to be flights onward (west) to French Polynesia. Those ended with COVID.

Things have tightened up tremendously in the past couple of years. Having an official guide accompany you is mandatory, and enforced. There were some ugly incidents caused by YouTubers, bloggers and instagram tourists, the locals got pretty hostile, there were confrontations, all access was shut down (during COVID the island was isolated). Now, they have a very different attitude towards tourists - they're not as easy going as things had been before. You should carefully investigate the requirements - as soon as you start googling, you'll find plenty (including some pretty nasty confrontations between entitled tourists and hostile and in-no-mood-for-tourist-BS locals). There appears to be continuing resentment and friction between some tourists and some residents (not all, but vocal minorities on both sides). You will want to be aware of all that. We all need to behave and play nice with others.

(Caveat: I have no personal experience with Easter Island, but have often investigated options to travel there - I have not checked for a few months but I suspect things have not changed recently - last time I checked, the vibe did not seem happy; I could be wrong but I would suggest you approach the trip with a lot more caution than tourists typically apply when jetting off elsewhere...there seems to be some very hardened feelings on some fronts.)

We were just in Easter Island in October, and we found it nothing but totally welcoming and pleasant. Truly a wonderful life-time experience. That said, we were part of a group tour (we were all extremely well behaved) and we had guides (who were likely some of the best and most experienced on the island) with us for all touring.

Peru/Cusco JUST had some more unrest (something to do with protests over a change in who would handle ticketing), but (if I understand correctly), the protests resulted in a reversal of the change. But, during this period of unrest, trains were not running, leaving tourists to pretty much walk (based on an article in our local newspaper). If you look at the State Department Travel Advisories for Peru, you will see Cusco pretty much always listed as a potential area for unrest/crime, etc. Again, being on the group tour we were on, we had no issues and saw no problems, but had serious unrest/protests unfolded as just recently, likely the group would have skipped the Peru stop (which, of course, would have been disappointing). Timing and luck is everything in travel, it seems.

Long way of saying, it is good to plan travel with a serious back-up plan that can go into place should something unexpected suddenly unfold that would not allow you to press forward with plans, especially in locales like Peru that seem to have on-going State Department warnings.

To answer your question: I have never heard of the tour company you asked about. You might also check www.tripadvisor to see if anything is there, if you have not already done so..

Glad you had a great trip to Easter Island, Maggie. Maybe things have mellowed a bit there (or maybe a lot depends on how you do it and how you behave). Did you have tour guides close-by while you were in the National park areas? I suspect the ill will I've read about was caused by independent travelers who were behaving badly (or at least that's what was alleged). I hope to get there one of these days!

Yes, Peru has definitely had some instability lately. Wishing the best for them going forward.

David, yes, in the Rapa Nui area (and really everywhere we went), we were transported via larger vans with guides. And, tour members were able to see/do pretty much whatever they wanted, including visiting the volcano crater. What was totally cool for us is that the pilot(s) of our plane circled the island on approach twice, so both sides of the plane could get a great view/photos of the island. The one time I was without a guide was when I was dropped off for a quick stop in "downtown" to pop into a shop or two. The shop staff was not gushy...a tiny bit of language issues... but they were business-like polite. Magically, the vehicle that dropped me off appeared when I left the shop. And, "downtown" seemed to have more free-roaming horses than people on the streets. You will see horses a lot. One of our guides said if someone is looking for their horse, they just ask around, and someone will know where to find it. Ditto for dogs. One saw me as an "easy mark" and sat at my feet outside for breakfast (yep, he got a bit of bacon), and moved on to his "next mark" when we left.

Unique place. For the most part, two full days is plenty to see/do/enjoy.............and if flying regular commercial (we were not), it is a LONG trip to/fro (typically Santiago). We were able to go "a bit" more direct from Cusco to Pisco to Mataveri Airport on Easter Island instead of having to bounce down to Santiago first.

PBS has a program about Easter Island coming up this week (not sure if it has been aired before), and we plan to watch it :)

If I were pushed to describe the "vibe," maybe a bit like Hawaii, but less choreographed, and more casual/relaxed......without the crowds, not nearly as developed with hotels and shopping, and without the young international couples with photographers snapping their photos constantly. You will not see traffic jams and will not feel overwhelmed by crowds of people. Very environmentally aware. It is technically against the law to use plastic bags there.

Thank you for the tips. May I ask what tour company you used on Easter Island? If I cannot find one, I feel, backed up by the comments I'm reading, that I can do Easter Island on my own for just 2-3 days. Can anyone tell me if you need advanced reservations into the National Park, or can you acquire them upon arrival? And does anyone know if there is a guide/tour service on the island that make a big circle around it?

Thanks again!

Mari, I will send you a private message to answer your question.

Tom, I sent you a PM.

Hello Maggie, I am headed to Easter Island in October and looking for a tour guide as well. Do we need to rent a car or can we do Uber?