Hotel Kaimana Inn Rapanui — Hotel in Easter Island

My stay at Kaimana Inn Rapanui and the hospitality provided by Marcelo (along with Dolly and staff) made my visit to Rapa Nui magical. I was traveling solo and this was birthday trip. Soon after I booked my stay through Booking.com, Marcelo, the owner of Kaimana Inn, communicated with me to obtain my arrival information. I was greeted with a bougainvillea lei upon my arrival in IPC. Because all of us who were staying at Kaimana Inn arrived that week were on the same flight from Santiago, I was able to meet other guests right away. On the way to Kaimana Inn, Marcelo gave our group a driving tour of Hanga Roa, which included a stop at a tourist office in town so that others could purchase the Rapa Nui National Park pass (I had already bought mine online). Kaimana Inn Rapa Nui has six rooms around a courtyard that has the seating lounge, dining area, and small kitchenette. The hot tub you see in photos was not working at that time, but I did not miss not using it. I had the corner room behind the hot tub. It was clean and furnished with a double bed and a twin bed, as well as a standing electric fan and a mini-fridge. There is no air conditioning unit (which I also did not miss). The room was cleaned/tidied up every day by staff. A few hours after we (the guests) settled in, Marcelo had a meeting with us to tell us about the tours he offered and also to provide us with his contact number so we could always reach him via WhatsApp. This proved to be very helpful, as Kaimana Inn does not have a reception desk. Marcelo was very responsive, such as when the water cooler jug needed to be replenished (done within an hour of me letting him know) or when there was a power outage (the generator was turned on right away). Five of us decided to book the tours with Marcelo, who was our tour guide for 3 days (two half-day tours and 1 full-day tour) through all the main archaeological sites. I really wanted to see the lunar eclipse on November 8, which happened to be my birthday, and I asked Marcelo if he did any special tours to view the eclipse. Marcelo asked the rest of the group if they would be willing to start the day an hour earlier, so we could depart Kaimana Inn at 5:30 a.m. (instead of 6:30 a.m.) so we could drive to Ahu Tongariki, where our sunrise tour was, to also view the eclipse. Luckily, everyone was agreeable to this. The morning of the lunar eclipse, most of us were up by 4:30 a.m. anyway and we were able to see the partial eclipse from outside our rooms at Kaimana Inn. This was fortunate, because by the time we had driven to the entrance of the Ahu Tongariki complex, the cloud cover prevented us from viewing the full lunar eclipse and Poike volcano obscured the moonset. We did, however, see a spectacular sunrise behind Ahu Tongariki. Because of our early start, we were the first tour group to enter the complex and were able to enjoy the mo’ais to ourselves as dawn broke and the sun rose, before other tour groups arrived. Marcelo provided us with tea, coffee, and breakfast sandwiches in car tailgating fashion. Marcelo did not charge us extra for the eclipse viewing (I only mention this because I had made some inquiries from other tour companies regarding eclipse viewing tours, and one quoted me $350 for a private eclipse tour; or $120 if there were others in the tour!) Later that day, I and another person in our group who also celebrated her birthday that week, were treated to slices of cake over lunch. I feel very fortunate that the other people in this ad hoc tour group---one guest from a nearby hotel and five guests from Kaimana Inn (a German, a Chilean couple, an Argentinian, and me) were drama-free and we all enjoyed Marcelo’s tour guiding services. Marcelo also helped some of us with reservations to see the Ballet Cultural Puku Rangi Tea at Pea Restobar and we had front row seats to the show (and the sunset preceding the show). Our ad hoc tour group used the WhatsApp group chat to share photos with each other. As Kaimana Inn’s promo says, “People arrive as strangers and leave as friends.” My only regret is that I did not stay at Kaimana Inn for the entirety of my visit to Rapa Nui. I moved to a different guest house after four nights at Kaimana Inn because I thought I wanted to try staying in a different part of Hanga Roa. By the time I realized this was a bad decision, it was too late to cancel reservation at the other place (due to the late cancellation penalty fee). Marcelo kindly drove me to the other guest house after I checked out of Kaimana Inn. If I were fortunate enough to visit Rapa Nui again, I would definitely stay at...

This is not a hotel. It’s your friend’s house who invited you over to spend some time in the most remote part of the world. That’s how welcome and pleasant I felt here. ||Marcelo and his family run this establishment. He’s a one stop shop for everything Rapa Nui. ||Marcelo welcomed me at the airport with a gorgeous lea. The hotel is off main street in a private alleyway. It’s simple, but offers and authentic experience. Marcelo’s family lives up front and the back has a nice patio, kitchen area and several rooms. I was solo, but my room had three beds. So I had plenty of space. ||I was welcomed with a yummy smoothy, and after that Marcelo just took care of everything for me, from giving me different tours, arranging a glass-bottom boat ride, booking a 4-wheeler for me to do some adventure exploration, arranging a show reservation, and taking me to the National park areas as a credentialed guide. Did I mention, he’s also the volunteer firefighter. ||I really enjoyed my stay here. The room is clean and comfortable. There were plenty of fans available if I needed them, but the heavenly cross breeze made those unnecessary. ||I loved that instead of serving breakfast separately, they encourage guests to sit around a bigger table. I met several interesting people this way. Felt great. ||The location is great. Walking distance from the town main street and less than 10 minutes from the town beach with several Moai’s. ||In terms of service, on the day I was leaving I asked Marcelo I’d like to buy a specific t-shirt and he drove me around to various shops till I got it. Then he made sure that I have my flight all the way to the security check point at the airport. Now that’s just awesome. ||I loved, loved my time at Kaimana Inn. It’s a whole experience, made special by the host and his family. I cannot recommend this...

The 1st thing you need to consider is that unless you stay at a very large actual "hotel" in Hanga Roa, your accommodation will probably be very basic and lean more towards a B&B without tradisional hotel amenities.|This was the case with our 7 night stay at the |Kaimana Inn. It's actually 6 rooms behind the owners house with a common seating/ eating area. There is no attached restaurant.||The good:|Centrally located off the main street in town|Close to restaurants, food stores and shopping |Excellent included breakfast offered at 9:00AM|Good wi- fi|Daily " freshen up" housekeeping |We used Marcelo as our tour guide and he did a very good job. Note that you cannot tour the park areas without a certified guide.||Not so good:|The central gathering place and rooms are starting to show their age|The room furnishings were outdated |Since it’s located off an alley it’s right against other houses and sleeping was often disturbed by very loud dogs.||I would have rated it as...