Hanga Roa

Hanga Roa needs 3 days: Rapa Nui National Park, with over 900 moai scattered across the island, including the Ahu Tongariki site, with 15 reconstructed statues in a row, on one, the Rano Raraku Volcano, the original quarry where the moai were carved, on another, and the Rano Kau crater with the Orongo ceremonial site on the third. October-April is best. It's expensive, the most isolated inhabited island on the planet, 3,700 km from the Chilean mainland. Its Polynesian-origin Rapa Nui culture built a civilization that carved over 900 monumental statues between the 10th and 16th centuries without metal tools, an archaeological mystery that still draws researchers from around the world.