What It’s Like Travelling During a Pandemic (and Canada Quarantine Hotel Review)

I spent the best part of the last 3 years living in Canada. So, when I sadly had to travel back to England for a funeral in January 2021, I didn’t realise how hard it would be to return to Canada.

While my journey to England was unavoidable, I was able to play my return to Canada by ear. However, as soon as I heard about the implementation of a mandatory quarantine, I knew things were going to get difficult.

Originally, I was willing to wait a month to see how long the quarantine lasted. However, when it was still going in early April 2021, I knew that I should return to Canada and suffer the consequences.

There were so many things that could go wrong, but I was willing to risk it. I was worried due to the stay-at-home order in England that they wouldn’t even let me get on the flight. I was also nervous about the Canada quarantine hotel.

For my detailed Canada Quarantine Hotel review, read until the end.

Trip Preparation

I spent countless hours preparing for my flight back to Toronto in April 2021. After booking my flight, I trawled the Government of Canada’s website checking every detail. I researched everything I needed to do prior to my flight and what documents I would need to provide at the airport.

Note: I want to preface that this is just my experience and the rules are changing quickly. So, please make sure you do your own research directly on the Government website to ensure accurate information at the time of your own travel.

The best advice I can give is to be over-prepared and have every document you think you may possibly need. Organise all these documents in a binder and try to put them in a sensible order so that you can find each document quickly when asked.

Have everything printed, rather than showing it on your phone. It is much easier to give the officer your whole folder, rather than trying to show a screenshot or email on a small screen.

London Heathrow Airport Experience

Airport

Due to the travel restrictions in England forbidding non-essential travel, I wanted to allow plenty of time at the airport to allow for all the extra processes. I arrived at the airport a little over three hours early and I felt this was a good amount of time.

Anyone who is not flying is not allowed in the departures hall. They were making people show their passport at the entrance.

My Dad went to get a coffee from the arrivals hall and waited in case I was not allowed to check-in for some reason.

I was not able to get my boarding pass online or at a kiosk at the airport, I had to see an agent so they could check all my documents. This is where the “fun” began.

Check-In

The agent asks for your reason to be allowed to travel to Canada and documents to prove it. I was travelling under the family reunification exemption because I have a Canadian common-law partner. Common-law is harder to prove than marriage, because alongside the certificate of common-law they also want to see other documents proving your relationship, such as a lease and bills with both names on it.

I gave the agent my folder of documents and looked at every single one of them. They had to show these documents to their supervisor. It was a long, nervous wait and I was beginning to doubt that I would be allowed to fly.

Once the supervisor had looked over my documents, she had to call Canadian border control for my approval to fly. Eventually the Border Officer had more questions and wanted to speak directly to me on the phone. He was asking about where I’m going to stay in Canada, when my return flight is, and what I do for work (which was a trick question because I can’t work in Canada). Finally, the Border Officer gave me the green light to fly over the phone.

The Air Canada agent helped me check in my bags and gave me my boarding pass. The agent wrote “docs OK” on my boarding pass. I felt so relieved and gave my Dad the good news that I was allowed to check-in so he could drive home. I was pleased that I had arrived at the airport early because it gave me plenty of time to have a relaxed lunch.

At boarding, another airport agent recorded our temperatures. Then we could board with just our passports and boarding passes. I wasn’t asked to show any other documents.

Air Canada Flight

The flight was empty, and I had a whole row of the plane to myself. Meals were provided as usual, but only vegetarian food was served.

The lights were turned off for almost the entirety of the flight. This is abnormal for a flight from Europe to North America, given that it was a daytime flight. I heard that is to encourage people to sit quietly in their seats due to COVID, rather than walking around the plane.

Toronto Airport Experience

When I landed in Toronto, I wasn’t mentally prepared for what was to come. Although I was physically prepared with all my documents, I didn’t realise how rigorous and how long the arrival process would be. Every time I came to Canada as a visitor in pre-covid times, Customs and Immigration were very thorough with their questions. But this time it was even stricter and more stressful.

Customs

First, we were greeted directly off the plane by Customs Officers who were checking passports. They were briefly asking people for their reason for travel. I couldn’t figure out what the purpose of this check was, given that we had all been vetted before travelling, and we were about to go through official Customs and Immigration.

Then, I continued on to Customs where they needed the customs form that I had filled out on the plane.

The officer also wanted to see documents related to my reason for travelling, my quarantine hotel confirmation and the ArriveCan form showing my quarantine details.

Public Health

My ArriveCan form flagged up that I was going to be quarantining with an Essential Worker. Therefore, the officer directed me to a line to speak to a Public Health Official to verify if I was able to quarantine at my chosen location.

This is where I want to emphasise how important it is to read every little detail on the Government’s website. I had seen a little sentence on the website saying about needing approval from the Essential Worker if you will be quarantining with them. Therefore, I made sure I had a letter of approval with me.

The Public Health Official that was dealing with my case didn’t know that you were allowed to do this. So, she was nearly about to reject my quarantine plan. I was starting to panic that I would have to find somewhere else to quarantine. Then, luckily, the officer spoke to a colleague who confirmed that I just needed approval from the Essential Worker. Finally, I exhaled.

Immigration

The next step of the arrivals process was to see Immigration. I was questioned for around 5 minutes (which seemed like a long time) about my reason for travelling here. She also asked why I am travelling now and asked about my previous trips to Canada.

My passport was stamped and I was sent on my way. Again, I let out another huge sigh of relief.

I picked up my luggage, gave in my approved customs form and was sent towards the COVID-19 testing area.

By this time, I was extremely hot and tired from lugging my bags from point to point. I was also fed up of getting all my documents out.

COVID-19 Testing

Other than being organised with your documents, my biggest advice is to travel as lightly as possible through the airport. Make sure you check-in any heavy bags. I had a heavy duffle bag and one checked bag. I wished I had checked in the duffle bag as well because it was a real nuisance. At the time I really regretted not paying the baggage fee of CAD 100 for the convenience of having free hands.

I had already registered an account online for Swift Health, the COVID testing company, in the days before I flew. This saves you a few minutes at the airport. You then show your passport and an agent verifies your account and gives you a specimen tube. After this you take your specimen tube to the nurse taking the test. The nurse also needs to see your passport again to check against the specimen tube label.

Once the test had been done, I was provided with a box containing my home testing kit. I had to show my passport another 2 times before finally being able to leave the testing area. Finally, I could make my way to the quarantine hotel.

Canada Quarantine Hotel Review

Booking

After many hours of research on Facebook groups and internet searches, I chose the Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Airport West hotel for my mandatory quarantine hotel. The total cost of the stay, which is to be pre-paid and is non-refundable, was 1,144.26 CAD (approx. £670). When I was booking this hotel I noticed I could get a King Room or a 1 Bedroom Suite for the same price. I chose the suite!

Here is the link to find the hotels available to book for the Canada hotel quarantine.

Arrival at the Hotel

Once I had finished the COVID test, I called the hotel to arrange my pick-up. Within 5 minutes they had sent a private vehicle to pick me up.

It felt nice to be sitting down in silence after carrying my bags for so long and being interrogated so many times. (Many other hotels send you on a shuttle with other people from your hotel).

I was taken to a back entrance where international travellers can come and go, separate to the main hotel.

My partner managed to meet me at the entrance for literally 3 seconds to hand me a bag of goodies and homemade food. I think we would have been able to ask the hotel to put this bag in my room also.

Room

My first impressions of the hotel were good, and I could tell my room was clean. The receptionist was friendly. I was pleased that my room looked like the pictures from the website had indicated. I was also happy that there were only 5 floors to the hotel.

After such a hectic day of being utterly grilled, I was happy to be in quiet and safe place in the hotel. (Of course, I would have loved to have been at my Canadian home, but I knew that wasn’t an option).

Food

I settled into my room and 45 minutes after my check-in (at around 6:45 pm) I was delivered dinner. The next morning, I woke early due to jet lag, but I had to wait until 8:00 – 9:30 am for my breakfast to be delivered.

Overall, the food was not to my taste and often served cold, so I had to reheat it in the microwave. But, I am also a fussy eater, which is why I made arrangements to have food delivered in case I didn’t like the meal.

Day 1

• Dinner: Lasagne, garlic bread and salad, chocolate dessert

Day 2

• Breakfast: egg and cheese muffin, apple, croissants, orange juice
• Lunch: plain rice, vegetables and chicken, mini cheesecakes
• Dinner: beef stew, potatoes and salad

Day 3

• Breakfast: scrambled eggs, sausages, hash browns, croissants, apple, apple juice
• Lunch: roast beef sandwich, salad, chocolate dessert
• Dinner: chicken curry, Caesar salad, chocolate cake

Day 4

• Breakfast: egg sandwich, muffin, melon, orange juice

Outside Time

I was ready for some fresh air so I called the front desk and they said they will send the elevator up to me immediately. Using the back entrance, I walked out of the hotel and there was no one to tell me what I could do and where I could go.

I walked a few laps around the car park with my mask on, and then realised that no one was checking on me, so I walked to the next car park over. My walk lasted around 30 minutes and no one ever came to get me. I did this again later in the day.

I think this is probably one of the biggest perks to this hotel, that you are free and not escorted by security in order to go outside.  

Covid-Result

The first day in the hotel was fine. It was a rest stop before the remainder of my journey. It was also a chance to relax and try to fight off the jetlag. However, after having spent around 18 hours at the hotel, I was fed up with being stuck in the hotel and eager for my negative COVID-19 test result to come through.

People may think that spending 4 days in a hotel would be easy. From my experience, the hardest part of the hotel quarantine was not knowing when my results would come.

After experiencing the Canada quarantine hotel, I would advise you to go into it with the mindset that you are staying for the whole duration. I, on the other hand, was mentally prepared to be leaving the hotel earlier than. But, then I was disappointed when I was still there on the 4th day.

In the end my test results came back in 63 hours. I took the test at around 5:30 pm on a Friday and received the result at 8:31 am on Monday.

Overall Impression of Quarantine Hotel

There were certain specifics that I was looking for when booking the hotel. For me, this hotel ticked the most boxes from the hotels that were available. I had read some horror stories from other hotels, and I saw good reviews of other hotels. But I decided to go with Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Airport West in the end.

Note: there are 2 Hilton Garden Inns, but the rooms looked more modern in the “West” hotel.

The biggest positive for me was the room size and the outside time. The biggest negative was the food. I have outlined some more positives and negatives of the hotel below.

Pros:

• Large room
• Good in-room amenities (microwave & fridge)
• Friendly service
• Private airport transfer
• Unlimited and unsupervised outdoor time
• On-time food service
• Plenty of water and snacks available
• Clean room

Cons:

• Food served cold
• No menu choice is given for food, other than Vegetarian or allergies
• Noisy air conditioning unit
• Windows don’t open
• Shower curtain (maybe I’m just a snob!)

I hope that this Canada hotel quarantine review will help you to prepare for your own pandemic trip. Alternatively, I hope this has provided you with an insight into how different travel is nowadays. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.

Further Reading

If you have recently arrived in Ontario, I recommend you read my other articles on what to do in Ontario and when the best time to visit Ontario is.

You will also find useful my articles on Canada winter clothing, Ontario winter getaways and winter activities in Ontario.

• Read my article on Yurt Camping in Ontario for a summer adventure
• For a more adventurous trip, read about backcountry camping in Algonquin Park
• Learn about Algonquin park in autumn here