Åland Islands · AX

Sommaro

Sommarön — shown on maps as Sommaro — is a small, low-key island in the heart of the Åland archipelago, sitting in the calm waters of the Archipelago Sea (Skärgårdshavet) just off the coast of the municipality of Sund, some thirteen kilometres north of Mariehamn, the Swedish-speaking islands' compact capital. It is one of hundreds of rounded, granite-and-sea islands that make up this part of the Baltic, and exactly that quiet, unspoilt ordinariness is its charm. The island is tiny — around 22 hectares in area and roughly 0.9 kilometres long from north to south — yet it lifts some 25 metres above the waterline, enough to give it a real profile against the horizon of the surrounding skerries. There is no ferry, resort or signed trail here: Sommarön is the kind of island you reach under your own power, anchoring in a sheltered cove or slipping past by kayak while exploring the outer archipelago of southern Åland.