Travelling by bike on the Åland islands
- buenisimotravel
- 7 days ago
- 7 min read
The approaching spring makes me want to think about our past journeys and plan new ones for the next summer. In the summer of 2021, when the whole world was in a lockdown due to Covid-19 and it wasn't possible to leave outside the borders of Finland without two vaccines and we were still waiting for the second ones, we decided to travel to the Åland islands. And what was even better was that we decided to go there by bike and take our tent with us. It was going to be a big adventure!
I It is a destination easy to be reached from Helsinki, Turku or Stockholm by ferry. Åland islands are located right in the middle of the Baltic sea between Stockholm and Turku. It is an autonomous and demilitarized region of Finland and most of the people there speak Swedish as a mother tongue. Although, many of them also understand Finnish. I could practice some of the Swedish I learned in school there.
Our idea was that I would carry our son in a safety seat on the back of my bicycle and have the front basket for cargo. Sebastian would carry everything else on his bike. We had our camping gear and a limited selection of clothes and some tools in case the bikes needed some maintenance on the road.
So we started our journey on a sunny Tuesday afternoon from the port of Helsinki on the Viking line ferry M/S Gabriella towards Mariehamn where we would be at 4.30 in the morning the next day.
We had travelled by bikes before in Brazil and camped a lot, but all of that happened before our son was born and now he was 2-years old, so we also wanted to see if it was possible to travel like that with him. And yes, it was! Many people seem to think that after having kids it will take several years until you can go back doing the things you enjoyed before them but I think it's just not true. Of course it depends a lot on how your child adapts to the situation, and for sure it´ll be more difficult than before, but it´s also rewarding when you can show your child the things you like and he/she will get new memories doing something together. Our son is very outgoing and curious so it has always been easy to travel with him. He was already used to being in the child bike seat on the back of my bicycle from our short day trips in Helsinki, so I think it was good to get used to that before a longer trip.
Being in the back seat of the bike went fine, he even learned to sleep in the bike seat one day when we made a longer distance of 40 kilometers. When bored, he would of course want to move a lot in the seat and sometimes when it was really windy, I was a bit worried we would fall, but that luckily never happened. We took a lot of breaks so he could do something else and explore the environment. Sleeping in the tent was also a great experience for him. Something different than the bed at home for sure!
Åland is a little bit different compared to the rest of Finland. We could see for example Midsummer maypoles common in Sweden as we were travelling in early July just after the Midsummer festivities.
Åland is famous also for the “Åland pancake” which is almost like a normal pancake made in an oven but it has rice porridge and cardamom in the dough. In the shops, you can see a product which is ready rice porridge in a package looking a little bit like liver sausage packages in the past. I haven't seen this product available elsewhere in Finland, this is purely Ålandian!
We tried the “Åland pancake” in the Bagarstugan café in Mariehamn, and it was in fact delicious with some whipped cream and strawberry jam. Bagarstugan café is also interesting to visit if you like old buildings and decoration. It's in an old red wooden house and the interior is from earlier decades but very charming, this is how I would imagine a house in the archipelago in the olden days.
One problem we had related to food was that Åland doesn´t have so many grocery stores outside Mariehamn, nevertheless the island is from North to South 50 kilometers long and from East to West 45 kilometers, which is by car nothing, but when you travel by bike in the 30 degrees heat of July and with a toddler it takes much longer to get where you want to go. Also the camping areas can be isolated, like the one in Eckerö which was otherwise very well equipped with a pool and next to the beach, but the nearest shop was 12 kilometers away, a distance a tired traveler just cannot make in the evening after 50 kilometers in the sun. Luckily there was a small shop of only the absolutely most important survival foods in the camping area, but the prices were also very touristy. After learning this, we started buying canned food just in order to always have at least something to eat at all times.
Otherwise Åland was quite easy to travel by bike, it's flat and rural so it's easy to take breaks in nature along the way. I was hoping for more sea views, but unfortunately many of the roads were in the interior of the island and we had more forest and field views on the main island of Åland. It was a different story when we took our way back to mainland Finland on these small ferries from island to island and had the sea views all around. The island of Brändö was especially beautiful because it´s narrow and in many places you can see the sea on both sides of the road.
Camping is easy in Åland, there are several camping areas on the island. We stayed in Gröna Uddens Camping near the center of Mariehamn. It had a lovely sandy beach. Eckerö Camping and cottages on the west side of the island were also great, close to a beach, pool and a small shop. It was also very popular, so we couldn't find a very private place to camp but anyway enjoyed the place.
What we saw in Åland: the capital Mariehamn is very cozy and by the sea, so it's lovely on a summer day just to have a stroll in the center or a swim on one of the beaches. There is also the Sea quarter with local artisan products and you can see how the ships were built before. You can also visit the museum ship Pommern. There is the Mariebad spa if you are travelling with kids and the lovely Lilla Holmen island where you can take the walking bridge to a park with animals (rabbits and peacocks for example). The island naturally has a beach. You can spend a lovely day in Lilla Holmen if you want to have a picnic there.
In Eckerö, if you stay at the camp in Käringsund, you can enjoy the sandy beach and the atmosphere with old fishing cottages in the bay. There is also another sandy beach, Degersand, well worth visiting. There is also the Eckerö Mail and Customs House, designed by the architect Carl Ludvig Engel built in 1828 during the Russian period. It was on the mail route from Turku to Stockholm and the west looking building was probably designed so oversized to enforce the “grandeur” and importance of the Russian territory. The building itself is beautiful as the Engel buildings are, but it looks strange and out of place as it is basically in the middle of nowhere.
On the east side of the main island we visited the Kastelholm castle built in the end of 1300´s. It is a well preserved castle in a beautiful location.
Otherwise what Åland has to offer is I think it's beautiful nature, the sea and the beaches which are abundant. If you like the outdoors, Åland is perfect. Especially I enjoyed our way back to mainland Finland because we took small ferries that travel between the islands and you can actually take a bike there for free, cars have to pay a fee. They are very simple boats with no entertainment like in the big cruise ships, they might have just one café and you can just enjoy the views and the rare moments of silence we have nowadays. Slow travelling!
It's good to know the ferry schedules when you plan your trip because sometimes you might have to wait in the harbor for a few hours before the next boat comes or if there wasn't enough space for your car/equipment in the last one. In the summer, there are often long queues for the ferries because the archipelago trail between Turku and Åland is quite popular among tourists with bikes or cars. Luckily there are these free waiting rooms with bathrooms in the harbors for the travelers, which help a lot if there is a long waiting time ahead.
I have to mention one camping area on the mainland because it was just so lovely. In Kustavi Lootholma, we rested a few days before leaving the archipelago area. What is great is that they have a morning and evening sauna next to the sea included in the daily camping fee, so we rested from the journey very well there.
I hope you liked this post and if you feel like introducing yourself to more of Åland´s landscapes and history I recommend the 2024 film Stormskerry Maja filmed in the islands. Based on the book series by Anni Blomqvist, it tells the story of a young girl Maja who gets married to a fisherman who lives on a remote island in the 1800´s. The film tells how they build their life there in the midst of many challenges, including the battles in Åland during the war in Crimea (1853-1856). After staying alone on the island with the kids when her husband had left for the war, Maja has to share the small island and her home with British troops who use it as a base against her will. Amanda Jansson is the perfect choice for the leading role. First and foremost it's a beautiful story of love that endures everything.
Here's a link to the trailer with English subtitles:
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