Vancouver International Airport (YVR)

Three halls under one roof, and the terminal across the island

Inside, the split is by journey rather than by airline: a domestic wing, an international pier, and a separate departures hall for the United States. Which one you want is on the boarding pass, and the distances inside are walkable, but the sequence matters on a connection — an overseas arrival passes the border hall before it can reach the domestic gates, and that is the part people underestimate.

The building is also worth arriving early for. It carries one of the best public collections of Northwest Coast art anywhere: Bill Reid's great jade-green canoe in international departures, carved welcome figures facing the arrivals doors, cedar and glass and running water indoors, with a saltwater aquarium tank that stops most people walking past it. Across the island a separate South Terminal handles regional flights and floatplanes, linked by a shuttle that keeps its own timetable.

The Canada Line, and the fare that only bites one way

The Canada Line runs driverless from a station between the wings, over the river and under the city's south side to the waterfront downtown, beating a car at almost any hour because the bridges off the island are the bottleneck. It takes the regional tap card or a bank card held against the reader, and a supplement applies when the journey starts at the airport — not when it ends there, which is why the ride back out costs less than the ride in.

Buses cover the same ground more slowly and skip the supplement. Taxis queue in marked ranks and work on zone fares posted at the stand rather than a pure meter, so the price of a ride is knowable before you take it; ride-hailing collects from its own marked area. Both ranks are outside the doors; nothing legitimate is arranged in the baggage hall.

Where the Pacific arrivals clear, and where America starts

Vancouver is the border for the whole Pacific approach: your first landing in Canada is where customs happens, whatever your final city. Kiosks take the passport and the declaration, and travellers who declare in advance through the official app are sent to a quicker lane. If the trip carries on to another Canadian city, the checked bag comes off the belt here and goes back on at the connections counter — a transfer rather than a reclaim, but it eats a connection all the same.

Flights to the United States never meet a US border post on arrival. The transborder hall holds American preclearance, so the screening happens before you board and the flight lands on the other side as an internal one, which is what puts small American airports with no customs of their own within reach. That hall also shuts earlier than an ordinary gate. Whether your nationality needs an authorisation before boarding at all is a question for the entry rules for Canada.

Onward: the island, the mountains and the floatplanes

This is where a coastal trip changes vehicle. Short flights fan out to Victoria, the island towns, the interior and the north; floatplanes leave the South Terminal for the inlets, as they do from the downtown harbour; and scheduled coaches for Whistler and the ski hills load outside arrivals. Ferries to Vancouver Island sail from a terminal south of the airport rather than from the airport itself, which is a bus or taxi ride away, not a walk.

Car hire sits in the parkade across from the terminal. A car earns its keep on the Sea to Sky highway, in the valley or on a longer island loop, and is mostly a liability in the city, where parking is dear and the train quicker. For the Rockies, the Prairies or the east, this is a hub for the long domestic legs that make up travel across Canada — and the natural start of a western two-week route.

Layovers, a bed upstairs and the first hour on the ground

A hotel sits inside the terminal above the check-in halls, which is what you want when the onward flight goes at first light or the connection falls apart; a second cluster stands in Richmond and runs shuttles to the doors.

A long layover is genuinely usable here, since the train reaches downtown quickly — and a shorter one is better spent a couple of stops up the line in Richmond's Asian food quarter, dumpling houses year-round and night markets in season, nearer than the city and just as good an introduction.

Two practical notes for the landing. Connectivity is simplest solved before you fly, with an eSIM that switches itself on as you arrive; the terminal wireless is free if you leave it until the gate. And cards work everywhere here, on the train and in the taxis included, so there is little reason to queue for cash; how much to carry and when to tip is covered in money in Canada.