Aland Islands

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.

Choosing John Ellis as our travel advisor has been one of the best decisions we’ve made.

When we retired, our plan was to travel. I had made reservations for several different places. A cruise and a nice hotel , but no idea the best way to see Italy. I called Ellis Travel House to see if they had any ideas for me. Turned out to be one of the best calls I have ever made. I talked to John explaining what I wanted. He arranged the trip and it went flawlessly. He coordinated the things I...
By Steve Van Doren