Anakena

Anakena is Easter Island's most celebrated beach, a white-sand cove on the island's north coast far from the capital Hanga Roa. According to Rapa Nui legend, this is where Hotu Matua — the archipelago's mythical founding chief — made landfall with his canoes and established the island's first settlement, making Anakena the symbolic birthplace of Easter Island civilization. Two ceremonial ahu platforms with standing Moai overlook the beach, including Ahu Nau Nau, whose seven statues still bear rare intact coral-and-obsidian eyes discovered during excavations in the 1970s. Fringed by coconut palms planted in the 20th century, Anakena is the only stretch of the otherwise volcanic island that feels tropical. Visitors swim in the calm bay while the Moai stand watch at their backs.