Also known as Easter Island, this Polynesian isle has long been an aspirational destination—here's how to visit.

Explora Rapa Nui/Nayara Hangaroa

At 1,292 miles from its closest inhabited neighbor, Pitcairn Island, and 2,200 miles from continental Chile, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) takes isolation to the extreme. Here, at the lonely eastern edge of Polynesia, the empty horizon seems to curve with the Earth itself. It’s an extraordinary setting for one of archaeology’s enduring mysteries: Why did a group of Polynesians carve nearly 1,000 monolithic human figures (known as moai ), haul them across the island to distant ceremonial platforms over the course of centuries, and then topple them all to the ground? There are plenty of theories, and fewer answers.…