[mrnyc]

we stayed five days, including two of travel -- so really three days.

i would say you could see the big sites in a very minimum of two full days on your own with good weather and if you did your planning homework and you hustle around. a week would be best, or more if you are just hiking or biking around the island and not using a car (many people do this).

yes there is wifi around hanga roa -- its adequate, but its weak and it comes and goes. there is one tv channel too.

for food, well, you are not there for that. however, there are a range of restaurants and a couple grocery stores, so its fine. we basically went sightseeing in the morning, came back for lunch, then more sightseeing, then at dusk back to a grocery for empanadas, beer, water, etc. to take back to our place.

for nightlife, hanga roa has a couple bars and discos and a native dancers supper show too. also, the local polynesian style tattoo artists are rather famous, if you want to get one.

as far as accommodations, there is moderate variety. by far most are basic homestyle property affairs that islanders rent out. however, there are also a few hotels and one or two higher end resorts.

for more info check out the pics/link above in the thread to our place, marae cabanas, which seemed like a fairly typical example -- it only has three cabanas and it was a very clean, comfortable, homey place to come back to after sightseeing and hiking all day. for example, we sat out on our cabana lanai deck in the mornings and in the courtyard casita under the stars at night -- i really liked it.