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.
Talk about luxury and being spoiled, Forbes Travel and Lisa Bains did it! Our Alaska Cruise was great from start to finish, right down to the detail of the airport bus to the boat and back with all of our luggage taken care of from the airport to the ship and back again. Aboard ship we found a bottle of champagne in the room from you and there were three colorful balloons on the door. Talk about being indulged. No one else on that deck had such a greeting at their doors! Thank you, again, you really picked a great ship, and for the wonderful, over-the-top service, Lisa, and for your great agency.
