Easter Island (Rapa Nui) · Sports & events

The island's own competition fortnight, when, as Chile's tourism board puts it, Rapa Nui culture "comes to life" — traditional contests, dance and canoe events spread across the island. It is also the one period when flights and beds sell out, so book months ahead.

Diving is on the tourism board's short list of what the island is for, run from the caleta at Hanga Roa in unusually clear mid-Pacific water. The operators are small and their web presence is unreliable — one long-standing centre's site is currently just a holding page — so book in person on your first morning rather than in advance.

The surf here is worked out locally rather than sold as a package: boards hire in Hanga Roa and the conditions are visible from the seafront before you commit. It is an exposed mid-Pacific coast over rock, not a beach-break resort.

CONAF lists horseback excursions alongside vehicles, bicycles and walking as the ways to move around inside Rapa Nui National Park, and they reach ground the coast road does not. Arranged in the village, and the park ticket still applies.

Rapa Nui has no professional team of any kind. The nearest top-flight football is Chile's Primera Division in Santiago, on the far end of the only flight in. What sport happens here is local, seasonal and built around Tapati.