If you go to Easter Island and don't see this, you have wasted your trip. The sad thing though is that you are no longer allowed to wander around the interior of the crater. But my guide could get me to a location where I could see into the interior. I hired Marc Shields, Green Island Tours, for my guide... More

It's one and only such a place in the world so if you've decided to visit this isolated piece of land, you mustn't skip this part. It's good to buy a discounted ticket at the airport just after your arrival and then rent a car to reach this quarry. You can see there plenty of Moais as well as the... More

The quarry where the moai were carved. This is where many of the heads are. Not to be missed! You need a guide to really appreciate this, though.

The Moai you see here are those so often shown in the travel brochures and guide books, but unlike the pictures you view them from carefully laid out paths. Having taken a number of photographs I wasn;t surprised to find I had taken one of almost an identical view to one in a guide book the difference being there were... More

Rano Raraku is one of the top "do not miss" sites on Rapa Nui, because it is the area where the rock was mined to make the Moai, and they were carved. The trail is well kept and you can get very close to the Moai, which are strewn all over the hillside as if the carvers/quarriers decided to have... More

Sadly it's no longer possible to visit the moais insde the crater, it's now only the lagoon you are allowed to view. But if you get there early, who knows... The moais on the outside are impressive as well, of course and they are easy to get to and admire. But it is inside the crater where you can best... More

One of many on the island. Requires lots of walking. Referred to by the locals as The Factory. It is the huge quarry articles and photos are commonly published about.

Rano Raraku is a huge volcanic crater and the quarry from which all the Moai on Easter Island were mined. There are 70 standing sentinels embedded up to their shoulders in grass on the south side of the volcano. Once inside the quarry a further 150 Moai have been left in various stages of completion. The largest of these is... More

Buy your ticket at the airport for $50. Proceeds go to keeping up the parks. You really get an idea of how monumental the Moai are when you can see them in various stages of excavation and how far they were transported.