For our three nights on Easter Island we decided to stay at Explora Rapa Nui, which is generally regarded as the best hotel on the island. Here’s a full review of the experience.
Booking Explora Easter Island
This was my first stay at an Explora property, though I had heard of the brand before, as I’ve also been intrigued by their properties in the Atacama Desert, Patagonia, etc. While I’ve heard great things about the hotels, they’re also quite pricey. Here are their normal per person rates for the dates we were staying (in USD):
As you can see, a three night stay would ordinarily cost you $5,040 for two people ($2,520 per person), which is steep.
However, at the time we booked they were celebrating their 10th anniversary, and they had a promotion where two people could stay for the price of one. The catch is that when one person stays there’s a 34% surcharge. In that case, that meant a three night stay for two people cost $2,520 plus 34%, or $3,377, or ~$1,125 per night. That’s about one third off.
While that’s a lot of money, what makes Explora unique is that they offer a truly all inclusive experience. At Explora virtually everything is included, from your airport pick-ups, to all your excursions (typically two per day, lasting eight hours), breakfast, lunch, dinner, alcohol, etc. We didn’t spend a dime in cash the whole time we were on Easter Island.
Note that Explora belongs to Virtuoso, but since the resort is already all inclusive, the Virtuoso amenities are a $100 gift card to be used in the gift shop, plus an upgrade subject to availability. The hotel only has two types of rooms — the base rooms and a few suites — so being able to get an upgrade is potentially hugely valuable. If you want to book this hotel using a Virtuoso rate, Ford would be happy to help (he can be reached at [email protected]).
Explora Easter Island airport pick-up and check-in
As we exited the airport we were greeted by a friendly representative from Explora, who gave us leis and had us take a seat in one of their vans, as we waited for the other people from our flight to arrive.
Explora Easter Island welcome leis
That included about five other people, and we had to wait about 30 minutes, as they had checked bags.
Explora Easter Island van
The hotel itself is a short drive from the airport, so within 10 minutes we were there. The hotel can be reached by a long and very bumpy dirt road, so you have to drive down that every time you go on an excursion, etc.
Explora Easter Island exterior
We were directed to reception, where we were welcomed by the guest relations manager, Paulina. Since everyone had already filled out a credit card authorization form, the check-in formalities took all of 30 seconds. We were acquainted with the basic facilities of the hotel, introduced to the explorations coordinator, Diego, and then escorted to our room.
Explora Easter Island reception
The hotel has a total of 30 rooms, including 26 base rooms and four suites, and we were assigned room #7. For what it’s worth, it seemed like on average about a dozen rooms were taken during our stay, so it was fairly quiet.
Explora Easter Island walkway
Our room was towards the left of the resort — every entrance has two rooms, with one on each side.
Explora Easter Island room entrance
Here’s a map of the hotel, to give you a sense of the layout:
As you can see, there are four buildings with rooms, and then the big building in the middle has the restaurant, bar, cafe, lounge, etc.
The room wasn’t huge, though it was nicely appointed. Explora definitely goes for decor that feels appropriate for the destination, rather than something that’s over-the-top luxe and feels out of place. The room was apparently about 350 square feet.
Explora Easter Island Varua Room entryway
The room had a comfortable king size bed, then a cushion by the window that you could sit on, then a bench at the foot of the bed, and then two seats across from the bed.
Explora Easter Island Varua Room
Explora Easter Island Varua Room
Explora Easter Island Varua Room
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room seating
Back near the entrance was a closet.
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room closet
By the window was a bottle of water, and then two canisters that were a welcome gift that you could use for your explorations, and then take home with you. There’s a filtered water “tap” in the center of the hotel, so you can grab water there whenever you’d like.
Explora Easter Island Varua Room water & bottles
The room had views of the nearby nature, and of the pool in the distance.
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room view
The room featured double sinks.
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room bathroom
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room bathroom
To the left of the sinks was a shower/tub combo. The shower was massive, and water pressure excellent.
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room shower
Toiletries were Explora branded, and seemed to be pretty good quality.
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room toiletries
Then the toilet and bidet were to the right.
Explora Rapa Nui Varua Room toilet
Note that the rooms don’t have TV or Wi-Fi. Apparently this is by design, as Explora is intended to get you to disconnect. While we were using our phones on Easter Island, only the town seems to have data, so we had no data while in our room. That meant when we were in our room we were truly disconnected.
Personally I prefer having access to Wi-Fi in rooms, since it seems a bit idealistic to suggest that people should be able to completely unwind. I imagine there are a good number of people who can afford to splurge on things like this because they’re still able to work while traveling, rather than being shut off from the world completely. Anyway, it wasn’t a huge deal, and I got used to it after the first stay.
The good news is that the Wi-Fi in the public spaces is quite good — I was told it was apparently the best on the island.
Explora Easter Island pool & spa
The hotel’s pool was down a wooden path from our room. We didn’t have time to use it since we spent almost all of our time exploring.
Explora Easter Island walkway to pool
There was a pool, hot tub, and also an igloo looking thing of sorts, which was apparently a sauna (though I was told it was under construction). I love the design, though.
Explora Easter Island pool
Explora Easter Island sauna
Explora Easter Island pool
Explora Easter Island pool
On our last evening we also arranged to have a spa treatment. This is the only service that isn’t included at the hotel. A 60 minute massage was $100 (which I thought was reasonable for a hotel of this caliber), and the massage quality was exceptional. It was one of the best massages I’ve ever had.
Explora Easter Island spa
There were two individual spa rooms, and both were cute.
Explora Easter Island spa
Explora Easter Island spa
Explora Easter Island restaurant, cafe, bar, lounge, etc.
The focal part of the hotel is the beautiful main building.
Explora Easter Island main building
The views from here were breathtaking.
Explora Easter Island main building
Just outside the building was the tap I mentioned above, where you could refill your water prior to explorations.
Explora Easter Island water
The main building has a cafe, lounge, bar, and restaurant. As you enter the building, the first thing you’ll come across is the cafe. This is also where all explorations start, so it’s where you meet in the mornings and afternoons before you go out.
Explora Easter Island cafe
Explora Easter Island cafe
The cafe had a Lavazza espresso machine with phenomenal cappuccinos that you could order all hours of the day. Yum, yum, yum. I enjoyed one of these before breakfast every morning while getting caught up on work.
Explora Easter Island cafe
Explora Easter Island cappuccino
There was also sunscreen and bug repellent here. The sun screen was most definitely needed, given how strong the sun gets on Easter Island.
Explora Easter Island sunscreen
Next to that is the hotel’s gift shop, should you need to buy a jacket or something.
Explora Easter Island gift shop
Then next to the cafe is a cozy little lounge of sorts. This is where I spent my time working when I wasn’t out exploring.
Explora Easter Island lounge
Explora Easter Island lounge
Then there was a door, and on the other side of the door was the bar, which included high-top seating, had some tables and chairs as well, and then had a bunch more tables in a separate area.
Explora Easter Island bar
Explora Easter Island bar
As I mentioned above, the hotel is truly all inclusive, including alcohol whenever you want it. Every night we’d have a drink or two here before going to dinner. They made excellent pisco sours.
Explora Easter Island drinks
Here’s their bar menu, though you could order just about anything (the prices are for non-guests, since everything is free for guests):
Then past the bar was the restaurant, where we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Explora Easter Island restaurant
Explora Easter Island restaurant
Explora Easter Island lunch & dinner experience
Lunch and dinner at Explora were insanely good. Lunch was served from 1PM until 3PM, while dinner was served between 7PM and 10PM. However, it’s clear that they’re a bit flexible, but due to how explorations are scheduled, that works for just about anyone.
The meals were so great, and were always something to look forward to after our explorations. As in the bar area, drinks are included, and they have a very nice selection of Chilean wines.
Explora Easter Island wine
Explora Easter Island wine
Personally I liked the sauvignon blanc most, as usual.
Explora Easter Island wine
The tables were beautifully set, and we were always offered our choice of water, warm bread, and a tasty tomato spread.
Explora Easter Island lunch table setting
Both lunch and dinner consisted of three course meals. The menus rotated daily, and the only differnece between the lunch and dinner menu was that one appetizer changed. Otherwise the mains and dessert were identical on any given day. This worked great for us, since there were always so many appealing options on the menu.
For example, here’s our menu for day one:
Here’s our menu for day two:
And here’s our menu for day three:
Truly, I can’t say enough good things about the quality and presentation of all the food we tried. It was incredible, and the restaurant had friendly and attentive service to match. I’ll let the pictures of the food (along with descriptions of what the food is) speak for themselves.
Explora Easter Island appetizer — ceviche Rapa Nui
Explora Easter Island appetizer — vegetable tart with serrano ham
Explora Easter Island appetizer — tuna slice with yellow chili pepper sauce
Explora Easter Island appetizer — tuna salad
Explora Easter Island appetizer — pea soup
Explora Easter Island appetizer — tomato soup
Explora Easter Island main course — local fish with mushrooms and spinach
Explora Easter Island main course — local fish with rice, chutney, and spinach
Explora Easter Island main course — lamb chop with ratatouille
Explora Easter Island main course — pumpkin risotto
Explora Easter Island main course — vegetable ravioli with pumpkin sauce
Explora Easter Island dessert — strawberry sable with yogurt ice cream
Explora Easter Island dessert — caramel flan
Explora Easter Island dessert — cold chocolate and cinnamon cake with berries sauce
Explora Easter Island dessert — red fruit crumble with vanilla ice cream
The service was as good as you’d expect in any restaurant, and there was never anything to sign, and no soliciting of tips.
Explora Easter Island restaurant view
Explora Easter Island breakfast experience
The hotel serves breakfast daily from 7:30AM until 10:30AM. We were so impressed by the other meals (in terms of service, food quality, and presentation) that we figured breakfast would be great as well. My gosh, what a let down, by comparison. Let’s save the service for the end.
For breakfast there was quite a small buffet.
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
On the plus side, they had freshly squeezed juice and a small selection of fresh fruit.
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
Then there was cereal, two types of yogurt, pastries, and cold cuts.
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
Explora Easter Island breakfast buffet
Then there was a breakfast menu to complement it, which was limited to eggs, quinoa, and pancakes.
The eggs here were disgusting. The omelet was dripping in oil. Like, there was so much oil when I pushed down on the omelet that I could have probably filled a quarter of a glass. The next day I specifically asked for an omelet with as little oil as possible, and it was still drenched in oil.
Explora Easter Island breakfast — omelet
The last morning I had the quinoa instead (since I wasn’t going to make the mistake of ordering an omelet again), which I didn’t like at all.
Explora Easter Island breakfast — quinoa
So while the other meals were so great, breakfast was a huge disappointment. The biggest issue wasn’t even the food quality, but the service. One morning I had to ask for coffee four times before it was served. They couldn’t seem to deliver anything on time either. The second morning we waited 40(!!!!) minutes for our eggs, despite asking three times on the status of them.
We weren’t alone in feeling that way. The people at the table across from us asked if we had been waiting as long as they were, and they just stormed out, because their excursion started around then. Completely unacceptable, in my opinion.
For what it’s worth, when we left the hotel we briefly spoke to the guest relations manager. We raved about what a great experience we had, though shared that we thought the overall breakfast experience was subpar compared to everything else.
Explora Easter Island bottom line
With the exception of the breakfast experience (which they need to figure out), this hotel otherwise exceeded my expectations. The staff were incredibly friendly, the lunch and dinner food quality and overall experience was exceptional, and I appreciate that the hotel truly doesn’t nickel and dime, so cappuccinos, pisco sours, etc., are free all day.
None of this even begins to get into the incredible explorations we had from the hotel, which I’ll discuss in the next installment. We’re lucky that our good business class fares to Easter Island came out around the same time as Explora’s 10th anniversary, which meant we got about a third off. If you are looking for the best place to stay in Easter Island and can afford Explora, I’d recommend it.
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.