How can I get to Easter Island without breaking the bank?

Simon Calder answers your questions on booking flights from Chile, Israeli transport for during the Sabbath and what to do in Bucharest

Getting to the island can be costly as the nearest land is 2,000 miles away (iStock)

Q I am looking at booking flights with Latam Airlines from Santiago in Chile to Easter Island, for next March. On the UK website, the price for a return trip is coming in at £2,189 – way beyond my budget. Skyscanner, however, has directed me to the Chilean website for Latam. Here, exactly the same flights are coming in at £566 return. Is it safe to book via the Chilean website?

Charlene

A Anyone lucky enough to be travelling to Chile should take up the chance to visit Easter Island if they can possibly afford it. This distant volcanic fragment is one of the most beautiful and fascinating places on Earth. Easter Island is the same size as the Channel isle of Jersey, but rather more scenically spectacular – notably the crater of Rano Kau, created when a catastrophic eruption tore through the Pacific Ocean. This wild isle was settled by an enigmatic population who created hundreds of giant stone heads, known as Moai.

Easter Island also provides a pretty good definition of the word “remote”. It is so isolated that the nearest land, 2,000 miles away, is tiny Pitcairn Island with a population of only a few dozen. The South American continent is even further, with Santiago 2,334 miles and a five-hour flight away.

The fare of £2,189 that you are being quoted on the UK website is clearly ridiculous. Presumably, it is programmed only to offer the priciest option. The £566 quote on Latam’s Chilean website, just a quarter of the British figure, is more like it. I cannot see any problem with booking direct with the carrier on its home turf. But it would be best to book a UK-Santiago-Easter Island trip as a single purchase. You could potentially find a lower total fare and some good options on accommodation and would benefit from protection if a connection goes awry.

If you have yet to arrange your itinerary, a specialist operator such as Journey Latin America will be able to find the best deals. But perhaps you have booked the London-Santiago flight with frequent flyer points? If so, it is still worth tapping into the expertise of a UK-based specialist for the side trip to Easter Island.

Does Jerusalem close down entirely during the Sabbath? (AFP/Getty)

Q Can you please tell me if all trains and buses close down for the Sabbath in Israel? I am planning our trip to Jerusalem. But I have heard that the journey from Tel Aviv airport to Jerusalem is difficult from Friday to Saturday evening.

Susan J

A The Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) is a spell set aside each week as a holy day for rest and worship. It runs from shortly before sunset on Friday to nightfall on Saturday and therefore its length varies through the year.

Shabbat is widely observed by businesses and institutions in Israel, with many of them closing early on Friday afternoon. Although Tel Aviv airport remains open through the Sabbath, the Israeli national airline, El Al, avoids flying during it. Foreign carriers continue to operate: over this last weekend, for example, both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways flights arrived in Tel Aviv from London Heathrow during the day on Saturday.

Passengers touching down between Saturday night and Friday afternoon have multiple travel options to Jerusalem – in particular the excellent train link, covering the 26 miles to the city in just 26 minutes. But Ben Gurion airport station closes each Friday at 2.10pm and does not reopen until 8.50pm on Saturday.

Sharon Bershadsky, director of the Israel government tourist office in London, tells me: “The best way of transport will be the sherut taxi. They run on Shabbat while the public bus does not. You pay a fixed (and relatively cheap) price and have the convenience of a taxi as long as you are willing to share the ride with others and go on a predetermined route.”

They are mainly 10- or 12-seater minibuses. In my experience you can find them easily as you exit from arrivals at the airport. As with similar operations elsewhere in the world, you sometimes need to wait a while for the sherut to fill up. The vehicle will run to the central bus station in Jerusalem. If your destination happens to be along the way you can ask to be dropped off early.

In Jerusalem, many businesses close during Shabbat, but plenty of Palestinian-run enterprises remain open.

(iStock)

Q What would be your top tips for things to do in Bucharest, please?

RH Travels

A It’s a while since I was in the fascinating Romanian capital, but I have strong and happy memories from my visits there. Mainly I like wandering through the streets and parks of Bucharest, appreciating the many elegant buildings that survived four decades of a communist dictatorship and also gasping with something between horror and amazement at the structures created during the tyranny of Nicolae Ceausescu,

The Centru Civic area shows elements of Ceausescu’s grand vision for a socialist capital. It is said to have been inspired by a visit to Pyongyang in North Korea in the 1970s. The most notable monument to misery is the Parliament Palace, a vast folly reaching 12 storeys high. I believe it is even more absurd in its disproportionate scale and inappropriate architecture than some of the Soviet-imposed boulevards in East Berlin.

Piata Revolutiei, scene of the 1989 anti-Ceausescu uprising, has a memorial promising “eternal glory to the Romanian revolution and its heroes”.

Of the churches that survived the Communist era in good shape, the most prominent is the handsome Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral. Also try to visit the Biserica Cretelescu (with beautiful frescoes at the entrance) and the Biserica Stavropoleos, cared for over the centuries by the Greek community.

I am not the world’s greatest shopper, but the stretch of Calea Victoriei between Boulevard Regina Elisabeta and Piata Revolutiei has some interesting art and antique stores.

In terms of places to stay: in the 1980s I was briefly accommodated, rather against my will, at the Hotel Continental on Calea Victoriei. It has now revived its 19th-century style and is now reasonably prefixed “Grand”. Do call in even if you are staying elsewhere.

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