Here’s an interesting hiking vacation idea: Easter Island.

Another day, rise early and take a taxi to lovely Anakena Beach at the end of the paved road on the north side of the island (you should pay under US$10 for the 20 km). A few of the famous Easter Island statues have been restored at Anakena and you could go for a swim, although the main reason you’ve come is the chance to trek back to Hanga Roa around the road-free northwest corner of the island. You’ll pass numerous abandoned statues lying facedown where they fell, and the only living creatures you’re unlikely to encounter are the small brown hawks which will watch you intently from perches on nearby rocks. If you keep moving, you’ll arrive back in town in five or six hours (but take adequate food, water, and sunscreen). This is probably the finest coastal walk in the South Pacific.

To find out what happened to the island’s original inhabitants, check out Jared Diamond’s “Collapse.” Seems they kept on building statues right up to the time they cut all the trees down, then everybody died. Turns out their quest to preserve cultural traditions accidentally ruined their environment. Bummer for them, but it was nice of ’em to leave a tourist’s paradise behind.