Toronto Pearson Airport

Arriving tired fom Vancouver we were horrified to find that there was an inordinately long taxi queue and it took 30 minutes to get a taxi while an officious official was waving taxis away who wanted to pick us up! On leaving Toronto after several days in your lovely city we were held up for a very long time by inadequate security arrangements. What a bad impression we were left with!

I had to use terminal 3 on a recent trip. Arrived on westjet. Bags out in seconds. Check in area was clean and spacious. Security fast and the gate area is fine. Return customs was fast bags came quickly. Check in area was empty strange for 5pm on a friday. Security was fine and many food outlets in the domestic area again. Everyone says this terminal is dated but compared to US airports it's great!

Security confused and erratic as usual. Finally made my way towards gate 110 area only to find the news blaring out from the overhead TVs. Not only was this intrusive the commentary was in French and thus unintelligible to the vast majority of passengers.

Used Terminal 3 and found it to be a typical North American Airport not much to do landside and nothing airside. WiFi costs $10 and not really worth it. On arrival immigration was fairly quick and efficient. Baggage handling was okay inbound outbound loading delayed the flight. Check in with Thomas Cook nothing short of Abysmal long lines and untrained staff never even had the usual security questions asked.

Arrived at Terminal 3 to find that my husband and I had to queue for over 1 hour to get our luggage! Our passports were checked no less than 3 times - getting off the plane customs and immigration counter even though we not immigrating. Told it was a privilege to enter Canada on arrival. We were treated impolitely - not one thank you or welcome directed by a finger shunted to immigration control for questioning (for those studying working or staying 6 months +). We were just visiting for 18 days. Will not be returning for another "privilege" to Canada after the interrogation process.

Departed Terminal 3 on 14 Feb. Check in poor - 40 minutes to get to the desk with Thomas Cook. Security fairly quick but not very reassuring. Went to International Departure area. One crowded dirty scruffy bar / restaurant with ear splittingly loud "music". For a City which prides itself on it's image this area is a disgrace.

The airport (T1) was new and clean. The check-in lines did not take a long time. However the walks from the point you enter the airport until you get to your flight is extremely far. Which for seniors it is not that pleasant. The waiting areas where kept clean. However you must pay for wifi which I found quite shocking. Overall I would rate the airport 3 stars.

Toronto has matured significantly with the demolition of two older terminals and the Term 1 more or less fully on line. Though the old names remain Term 1 and 3. Reasonable shuttle between Terms. But indeed depending on arrival gate you can have a long walk (some moving sidewalks) - benefit being most times your bags are on the carousel when you get there. Food is good. Go to Tim Hortons if only a coffee donut soup or sandwich will suffice. Prices are close to outside the airport. Lots of hotels adjacent to airport. Bus service taxi and Limo to get downtime. This is the weak link- no train subway nor LRT- (express service) - solution keeps being a govt promises. There is now a cell phone lot. Customs hall is large - and signage (ie 'EXIT') could improve significantly. Drug/Contraband dogs are used - particularly for flights from Jamaica . Departing is easy other than during peak times (use e-ticket and carry-on to speed up). Security is very good - 'greeter' gives preliminary warning and plastic bags so you can be through in minutes.

Immigration arriving in the country from New York was fine. The queue moved and we had a jolly young man who made us feel at ease. While leaving for New York we went through an American run immigration sector and that felt very much like American immigration (rude staff long slow queues etc). It's only an issue if you fly to America otherwise you get the good Canadian run immigration. There weren't many places to eat but everything is signposted and clean and I enjoy going to Toronto airport.

AMS-YYZ-AMS using T3. Extremely long walking distances on arrival through empty corridors. Border guards meet you halfway but the check is only selective (I saw them checking people's passports and got mine out but was just waved through). Immigration officer was polite but extremely thorough wanted to know everything including why I live in Norway as a Russian citizen. Needing a visa to essentially everywhere makes one used to dealing with immigration but frankly this was the most thorough interrogation I've ever had. The whole immigration/customs thing is strangely organized (you fill in a card that the immigration officer checks and then you give it to the customs people). Didn't have any luggage so can't comment. Nothing special on arrival (pretty much a cramped room with a convenience shop) and no ATM would take my card (also brushed away rather rudely by the person in the currency exchange booth who barked they only dealt with cash - well why do they have a PIN pad sticking out then??) so had to the take the bus which you can pay for with the card. Departure was smooth printed out my boarding pass (on a computer with a really slow printer attached not a proper terminal) and into security which was reasonably fast but slightly chaotic (one officer instructed me to take metal objects off and then another told me to have my "stuff" on me). Once inside clean and tidy but nothing much of interest a few bland shops and sandwich/pizza places (again had problems with my card!). Boarding OK but they could do with a screen that is higher up or a better microphone: boarding is by row but everyone was trying to get closer to hear what they were saying so it was quite a scrum. Overall an OK airport not your OSL or AMS but not worse than many big European airports.