Three Volcanoes 3Day Private Hiking Tour of Easter Island

Hike to the highest point of Rapa Nui and stand surrounded by the Pacific, with an uninterrupted 360° horizon in every direction. A gradual trail and wide-open landscapes make this one of the island’s most rewarding nature hikes.

Vai a Heva: A huge face in the rock that functions as a water receptacle. It's said to have been carved by a widow called Heva. When it rains, the water falls from the eyes down into the mouth, representing her eternal sorrow for the loss of her husband.

Volcano top: From the top of the volcano you'll have a stunning view of almost the entire island, from Terevaka and Ovahe in the north to the distant volcano Rano Kau in the far south-west.

Trachyte moais: Only 5% of all of the moai statues of Easter Island are made somewhere else than in the volcanic quarry Rano Raraku, and most of them can be found here. At the back of the volcano Poike, a few gray moais can be found, carved from the heavy and hard rock trachyte. Thanks to the hardness of the material, details on these statues have been preserved that otherwise would have deteriorated a long time ago.

Virgin cave: In a dramatic location by the cliffs lies the hidden cave Ana o Keke, often called Virgin Cave. Young girls were imprisoned here in ancient times to obtain a fairer skin. The girls carved images on the cave rock walls that also can be found in the mysterious and undeciphered ancient writing language rongo-rongo. Visitors must not be afraid of heights to enter!

From the Rano Kau viewpoint, the trail curves away along the rim with the vast crater on one side and the open Pacific on the other. Rano Kau is one of the three volcanoes that built Easter Island, and its caldera — nearly 1.6 kilometres across — holds a freshwater lake fringed with totora reeds, its own microclimate, and a silence broken only by wind and distant waves. As you move along the rim, the crater reveals angles that no road or parking area ever shows you.

The trail ends at Vai a Tare, on the far side of the crater from the ceremonial village of Orongo. Here, the full drama of the landscape opens up: the crater stretches back toward Orongo; the great breach in the crater wall known as Kari Kari frames the sea; and beyond it, three small islets — Motu Nui, Motu Iti and Motu Kao Kao — rise from the Pacific. These islets were the stage for the Tangata Manu, the Birdman competition that decided political leadership on Rapa Nui for nearly two centuries. Each spring, clan representatives descended the sheer cliffs below you, swam out to Motu Nui in search of the first manutara (sooty tern) egg of the season, and — if they survived — made the crossing back. Standing at the cliff edge, hundreds of metres above the surf, the stakes of that ritual become viscerally real.