The Åland Islands or Åland (pronounced "Oh-lahnd") are a group of small islands officially belonging to Finland in the Baltic Sea, consisting a surrounding archipelago. It is autonomous, demilitarised and is the only monolingually Swedish-speaking region in Finland. Åland's original name was in the Proto-Norse language - Ahvaland which means "Land of Water". In Swedish, this first developed into Áland and eventually into Åland, literally "river land"—even though rivers are not a prominent feature of Åland's geography. The Finnish and Estonian names of the island, Ahvenanmaa and Ahvenamaa ("perch land"), are seen to preserve another form of the old name.
Lisa created the perfect holiday for me and my family to explore wonderful British Columbia. Her intimate knowledge of where to stay, what to eat and things to do proved invaluable and saved me weeks of online research! And when forest fires created some last minute concerns, she was incredibly helpful and put together contingency plans that set our minds at ease. Thanks!
