Husband and I are visiting Finland for the first time this July and it will come at the end of almost 4 weeks total, most of which we'll be spending in the Baltics. We'll take the ferry over from Tallinn and fly home from Helsinki, and we're thinking just a couple days for Helsinki, since we'll want to spend just a moderate amount of time on city-type sights.
We have around 3-5 additional days (i.e. not counting time spent in Helsinki) for more Finland exploring and were leaning toward islands for nature walking and kayaking/canoeing. We thought the Turku archipelago might be nice, but what reasons might someone choose the Aland instead, in particular given our interest in hiking and kayaking? (Maybe we could fly one way, do the ferry the other way to conserve time if we go to Mariehamm?)
Or maybe we should go to Lapland instead? I've been to the Arctic Circle before (Svalbard), but still can't help but wonder about choosing the western islands over the north.
The uncertainty about 3-5 days is because we are considering whether we should really be allocating two nights to the islands in western Estonia (esp. if we do the islands in Finland), so any opinions comparing those islands and recommending allocations of time are very welcome as well.