Maybe we just timed it right or benefited from the off season, but Canada’s airports seemed filled with helpful people and were a breeze to deal with, even having to navigate immigration, customs and baggage claim between connecting flights.

Here are some tips to make things even easier:

Toronto Pearson:

Navigating: This is a big airport with endless terminals. If you’re connecting and have kids in tow, give yourself time to get from point A to point B.

Moreover, if you are flying to or from the US via Toronto you’ll have to go through immigration here (in both directions). If you’re connecting, you’ll also have to claim your bags, walk them through customs and place them on a connecting flight carousel.

Entering Canada this is easy and straightforward. Heading into the US, don’t go to the regular carousel. You have to head upstairs to the US immigration/customs area, claim your luggage on a special carousel there, go through all the bureaucracy and then give back your bags. No one explained this to us and no signs pointed us this way. Luckily a baggage handler noticed us waiting around and tipped us off.

Eating and Playing: The domestic terminal had options for eating and shopping and a small play area at the faaaar end of the terminal near gate D22 (up a flight of stairs from Gates D1-D15). It seemed like an afterthought but made 4-year-old tiny traveler happy enough.

On the return flight, the information desk told us there was no play area in the international terminal and we didn’t find one (though the airport’s website says there is one near gate C34). Worse, short of one very standard airport bar/restaurant, most of the shopping in that terminal was before the gates on the other side of a glass wall, taunting us in a so-near-and-yet-so-far kind of way.

Check out our video itinerary of Quebec City.

Quebec City Jean Lesage:

Simple but engaging

Playing: It’s a small airport and super easy when it’s not busy. We left our center city hotel, checked in and cleared security in 45 minutes flat, leaving us plenty of time to cool our heels. Luckily there was a great play area. Its focus is pretend play and small toys (there’s one small slide). It’s clean and bright and we were dragging TT away from elaborate pretend cake baking when it was time to board.