With that in mind, a travel VPN is an easily overlooked tool to keep your data safe and give you peace of mind when you’re on the go. Of all the situations you might find yourself in when using a VPN, perhaps the most mission-critical is when you’re traveling. When you’re away from home, you’re dependent on whatever communication infrastructure exists where you are. You might have a strong Wi-Fi connection in the airport or café, but is it secure? Also: 12 gift ideas for travelers this holiday season That’s where a VPN comes to the rescue. The best VPNs create secure tunnels that protect your internet traffic. This gives you one extra layer of protection against having financial information or login credentials stolen. Keep in mind that VPNs are illegal in some countries, precisely because the host government wants to snoop on all traffic. Make sure you check into local laws before you do something that may be frowned upon, possibly with quite serious consequences. Also: Best mobile VPNs The service you use at home may be great for streaming movies, but VPNs can serve a much more serious purpose when you’re abroad. Choose carefully. You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media at @DavidGewirtz on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV. ExpressVPN has a sizable server network comprising 160 server locations in 94 countries. No matter where you’re traveling, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to connect to a local server. Exclusive offer: Get three extra months free A key advantage of ExpressVPN is the private DNS it runs on every VPN server when it comes to travel. That means that when you’re trying to access Gmail, for example, ExpressVPN’s DNS will give you an actual IP address for Gmail. If you’re relying on your local host network’s DNS, you have no idea what actual IP address you’re being sent to. It looks like Gmail, but is it really? Or did you just give a hostile government or organized crime your Gmail credentials? Make use of ExpressVPN’s private DNS. Read the review: Our ExpressVPN review ExpressVPN is a widely used VPN provider that supports a large number of platforms and devices. It’s also one of the best VPNs for iPhones and a top VPN for Android, which makes it extra useful for traveling. You can use the native app or setup ExpressVPN manually on all of the following: ExpressVPNs privacy policy clearly lays out what information it collects. It doesn’t log information that could be used to identify you, such as your IP address, browsing history, or DNS queries. However, it does track the dates you connect, how much data is transferred, and the server location. ExpressVPN has made this information very clear and easily accessible, which is a plus. Also: How to set up and use ExpressVPN Surfshark VPN can be a steal at only $2.05 per month with the current Black Friday deal for a two-year plan. In our most recent testing, its speed was middle of the pack (54% speed reduction), but it was reliable and had fast connection times. Surfshark VPN is as secure as they come, we found no DNS leaks and the company doesn’t log your activity while using the service. Surfshark also offers private DNS capabilities, as well as what they call NoBorders mode. This feature is designed to enable you to access sites regardless of restrictive border connections. Be careful, though. Countries restricting access tend to frown on bypassing those restrictions. Read the review: Our Surfshark VPN review Surfshark VPN comes with a number of standard features, including split tunneling, kill switch, MultiHop (double VPN), static IP address, rotating IP address, and an ad/tracker blocker. There are also inexpensive add-on tools, including a tracker-free search engine, data breach scanner, and antivirus software. In our review of NordVPN, it was fast (only reducing speeds by 32%) and had a reliable and consistent connection. NordVPN’s performance was generally consistent across a wide range of test situations. This means that if you’re traveling, you’re likely to be able to count on the same performance from NordVPN no matter where you’re connecting. Autumn sale: Get three free months with a two-year plan NordVPN also supports P2P sharing and is one of our favorite VPNs for torrenting. It offers a second layer of encryption through its Double VPN feature and has a dedicated IP if you’re trying to run a VPN that also doubles as a server. As far as compatibility goes, NordVPN supports all of the major platforms and has additional browser plugins for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Also: How to set up and use NordVPN Overall, NordVPN is a solid choice. It has a 30-day money-back guarantee, which should give you enough time to test out the product and see if it’s a good fit for you. IPVanish is a highly configurable product with a user-friendly interface and a raft of configuration options for the app. The app gives you a good number of server selection options and shows you the ping speed and server load for each location. These features can be valuable when you’re on the road because it gives you the option to choose the optimal server based on your current location. Read the review: Our IPVanish review IPVanish’s connection speed was fast, but the download speeds were subpar (cuts speeds by 73%) compared to other services in our most recent testing for the fastest VPNs. It also wasn’t able to hide the fact that we were connecting from a VPN. However, the connection was still secure. In certain areas, the inability to hide the VPN connection could create problems, so that’s something to keep in mind if you’re traveling to a country that doesn’t allow VPNs. Also, we made sure that each of our picks offered the best possible security, which means that your data will not be visible at all while using the program, and certain features (like a kill switch) are included. Airfare prices are set by algorithms based on a complicated number of factors, such as demand. You could notice a price different using a VPN to spoof your location, but the change in cost may or may not be related to your location. From a practical standpoint, it’s difficult to account for every possible variable. Also, given the amount of data available on consumers, maybe the real advantage in using a VPN is remaining anonymous. Another way to look at it is, if a VPN actually reduces the cost of airfare, it’s most likely not going to have as big of an impact as other factors. There are other tactics for booking cheap flights that should be higher on your priority list. Booking early and keeping an eye out for price drops (check if there are change fees before booking), or traveling during days or times of day when there is less demand are great ways to secure the best possible prices on flights. You can also check out ZDNET’s guide on the top VPNs for more options.
