Like many of the people I talked to there, getting to Easter Island and seeing its Moai was something I've wanted to do since I was a child.  It totally lived up to my high expectations and I had a blast.

The big question everyone asks when planning a trip: How long should you stay there. I stayed 3 nights. For me that was about perfect. I saw all the major sites and most of the lesser ones. 4 days would have been good if I'd had the time. (Keep in mind, I was *really* into it.) A week would have been too much. I was traveling solo, so that gave me the advantage to travel around pretty quickly, not having to coordinate schedules with anyone else.  Here's a summary of what I was able to see and do. 

After landing, I got a quick drive through Hanga Roa by my airbnb host.  I eventually rented a bicycle for the afternoon and visited my first moai, hitting close sites like Ahu Tahai. I rode the bike over the deeply rutted and eroded dirt road north to a couple of small lava tube caves, Ana Kakenga and Ana Te Pora, and a smaller ahu, Ahu Te Peu.  It was a pretty nice day, but the wind was strong, which, combined with the horrible road, made riding pretty tough. While a bike was perfect for these spots, it isn't how I'd choose to tour the rest of the island. The main paved roads are in good shape, but I saw some other visitors riding in the wind and rain and it just didn't look fun.  If I had to do it over again, I would have been more organized, and perhaps pre-arranged for some guided tour on my first afternoon there.

 

On my first full day, I joined a group guided tour (booked the day before). I would really recommend this as my guide was very informative and offered great insights into the history and culture of the island.

The next day, I rented a car and visited the sites that the tour did not cover, and also returned to a couple of the sites we had hit because it was raining when our tour visited them and I wanted a longer, drier look. I kept the car for part of the fourth day, since I had lots of time to do more touring before my plane in the afternoon. 

Here are the main sites I saw on the tour and on my own:

Rano Raraku: This volcano is the quarry whence the moai were cut out. Definitely my favorite place on the island, and really fabulous to see them in various states of construction. (Visited on tour and on my own.) The "route of the moai" also starts here and I walked along it for a little ways. This is the route the moai were transported along, and there are several moai along the route which were abandoned where they tipped over during the process.

Ahu Tongariki: With 15, it's the largest set of moai standing. It's definitely a can't miss. There are also some petroglyphs here.

Anakena Beach and its Ahu Nau Nau: The second most scenic set of moai on the island. I visited on my own and also came back a second time when it wasn't raining. I also checked out the Papa Vaka petroglyphs and other more minor sites which are just up the road from Anakena

Orongo: The site of the bird man cult village, along with the overlook into the crater of Rano Kau, now a nature preserve off-limits to tourists. Orongo was great and I met one of the rangers there  with whom I arranged a private  tour later that day to Ana Te Pahu.

Ana Te Pahu: This is a really large lava tube cave. The ones I'd visited by bike on day 1 were comparatively small. This one went for hundreds of meters, was much bigger around (inside), and you had to wade through water much of the time. It was really cool to visit it, and I wouldn't have been brave enough to explore it without a guide, just for not knowing what I was getting into.  Most tourists don't get here, which also made it fun to visit.

Evening cultural show: Not really part of the UNESCO site, I guess, but I attended the Kari Kari Cultural Ballet. The dinner was actually pretty good and a fair value, and the dance and music show was really great. I almost didn't go because I'd seen similar dance shows in French Polynesia. But in the end, I was really glad I attended.

Ahu along the southeast coast: Most of these were on my guided tour: Vinapu with it's "Inca-fit" stones, Vaihu, and the toppled moai of Akahanga, and a natural blowhole along the coast.

Interior ahu: Including such as Ahu Huri a Urenga with its double hands and evidence of being an astronomical observatory, and Ahu Akivi with the moai that are uniquely facing toward the ocean.

Puna Pau: The quarry where the red top-knot stones were cut.

Ana Kai Tangata: a coastal cave near Hanga Roa airport that really wasn't that impressive to me. Its Bird Man Cult era best colorful drawings are nearly gone.

Some of the other reviews here made it sound like the island is being overtaken by giant hotels. It didn't give that impression to me. Much of the lodging is still in airbnb kinds of places. There are no mega high-rise resorts, but the hotels there are fairly expensive.  It seemed a decent balance. I found a couple of okay places to eat for a reasonable price, as well as trying out some higher priced tourist places and it was all good.

When I was not with a group tour, with the exception of the Big 3 (Ranu Raraku, Anakena, Tongariki), or places right in Hanga Roa (Tahai), for the most part I had each place to myself, and even Anakena and Tongariki were not busy unless a group was there.  I visited in November, which probably isn't peak season, but was a pretty good time to visit. It didn't feel overrun with tourists. To me, it is one of the most interesting UNESCO sites in the world.