Flight into Montreal vs Quebec City

We will be flying into Montreal or back home from Quebec City, depending on cruise selection, and are not familiar with the airports and cruise terminals. If we fly into Montreal we can get there by 10:00 AM. Do we need to go through customs when coming from Virginia? How efficient is the system if we do? If we come back from Quebec City would an 11:00 flight be possible to make from the ship? I have no idea about the distance from ship to airport etc. for either city. Any suggestions would be helpful. :confused:

If you fly into Montreal from the US you will need to clear Customs and Immigration at the airport.

When I came through the lines were quite long, but I take it that was because there had been at least one large plane landing the same time my small plane arrived.

A 10:00 AM arrival should be plenty of time, unless there is a terrible delay in arrival.

We will be flying into Montreal or back home from Quebec City, depending on cruise selection, and are not familiar with the airports and cruise terminals. If we fly into Montreal we can get there by 10:00 AM. Do we need to go through customs when coming from Virginia? How efficient is the system if we do? If we come back from Quebec City would an 11:00 flight be possible to make from the ship? I have no idea about the distance from ship to airport etc. for either city. Any suggestions would be helpful. :confused:

I won't take a flight out of Montreal before noon. To clear US Customs and airport security can take three hours. Also signage is very poor in the airport . It's all in french and not well marked. We made a connection thru Montral one time. Thought 3 hours was enough time. We made our flight just before they closed the door. One of our bags missed the flight and was delivered to us the next day.

All of the signs are in English and French at the Montreal airport, a10:00AM arrival should be fine as Ruth C.says unless something terrible happens.Plan on the taxi taking up to an hour to reach the port.The U.S. Immigration seems to be faster lately when you fly home at Montreal but they took over an hour at Fort Lauderdale Port in December so you never can tell.Quebec Port is closer to the airport but it is a smaller airport with fewer flights.HAL usually recommends a12:00 noon departure from all ports.

Have a good holiday whatever you decide.

We flew into Quebec from DCA last summer--great flight on JetBlue through Pittsburgh. The Quebec airport is rather small and we got through Canadian customs easily and relatively quickly. The taxi (fixed rate of $34.25) from the airport to the HAL cruise ship took just about 30 minutes.

We decided to fly out of Montreal because of the cost, so took the train from Quebec to Montreal, spent the night and flew home. Worked for us and ended up being a nice way to end the cruise.

Flying in and out of Quebec City is pretty easy....the airport is small and easy to use. Signs are in French with English in lower case beneath the French. There are fixed rates to/from the airport depending on where you go.

Be sure to look at flights on Porter going to these cities if they serve your route. We have used them from Chicago and although the planes are turboprops they are very nice. They fly thru Toronto as a hub but the connection is easy and they have a nice lounge equivalent to a domestic US "Admiral's Club" for all passengers.