Best VPNs for Travelers

VPNs are always a good idea to help protect your identity and online activities. When you are traveling internationally, they can sometimes be essential for you to access “geoblocked” websites and streaming services (sites only available in certain countries). Check out my Beginner’s Guide to VPNs for all the details about what VPNs are and how they work. This post will focus on what to look for in a VPN as a traveler and the best options available, both free and paid.

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What to Look For as a Traveler

When choosing the best VPN for you and your travel needs, there are a few things to consider:

Data Allowance

If you’re just going to be checking your email, sending a few messages, posting a couple of pix, you don’t need a lot of data. This is especially true if you are only traveling for a short time. If you’re traveling longer-term, however, and planning on streaming entertainment from home, backing up all your photos online, or regularly video chatting with friends and family, you want to make sure your VPN gives you enough data to cover this. Data goes quickly! You can stream one movie, for example, and use 2-5GBs. The only way to easily avoid running out is to opt for an unlimited option.

Locations & Geoblocking

Most VPNs give you the option to just choose the “best available location”. This is usually just fine for most people and general web surfing. Choosing a VPN with a variety of locations, though, can help ensure a fast one is always available. The other thing to consider is whether there is at least one location in your home country. This way you can spoof your location to your home to access geoblocked sites (especially streaming platforms!) while you’re abroad.

Speed

By its nature, bouncing your signal around, a VPN is likely to slow your speed a bit. Some more than others. The speed basically correlates to the number of servers and how far away from you they are. Free VPNs will typically have fewer servers available and so be slower. Paid VPNs typically have many more server locations and so are faster. Like with data, if you’re just checking email and sending a few messages, you don’t need super fast speeds. For streaming, calling, video chatting, uploading, and downloading, however, a faster speed is essential. You don’t want to spend your precious vacation time waiting for loading and buffering!

VPN Detection

Some websites, especially streaming sites, have become wise to VPN users spoofing their location to access content in other countries. Many basic VPNs can be detected and blocked pretty easily. In order to ensure your favorite streaming platform will truly be accessible with a VPN, you might have to pay for one specifically designed to get around that detection.

Free VPNs

Of course, free sounds better, right? For some travelers, free options can work fine. Just be aware, many free VPNs come with a couple of caveats. You may have a limited amount of data that is free each month, limited locations, and/or slower speeds. It’s up to you and your usage needs to determine if these limitations are worth getting the service for free. If it is worth it, check out these top free VPN options.

Windscribe

Data: 10GB/month (+5GBs if you tweet about them)
Locations: 10 (7 European countries + US, Canada, Hong Kong)
Streaming Supported: Hulu, HBO (Netflix available with paid plans, see below)

Personally, I use Windscribe’s free plan when 10 gigs will do and their “build a plan” (see paid options below) when I need unlimited.

ProtonVPN

Data: Unlimited!
Locations: 44 Countries
Streaming Supported: No (yes with a paid “plus” account)

Opera Browser

Data: Unlimited!
Locations: 3 (Americas, Europe, Asia)
Streaming Supported: No

Differently from normal VPNs, this one is built into the Opera internet browser. Just download the free browser and turn on the VPN feature with one click! It only protects your activities within that browser.

Speedify

Data: 2GB/month
Locations: 200+ servers in 50+ locations worldwide
Streaming Supported: No

Paid VPNs

If the limitations of a free VPN are getting too annoying or won’t work for your needs, you may need to bite the bullet and pay for this service. It’s not too expensive, so it’s probably worth it for most people. Paid VPNs are unlimited as far as data, have more options for locations, faster speeds, and are much more likely to support your favorite streaming service.

NordVPN

Cost: US$3.49 to $11.99 per month, depending on how many months you buy together
Locations: 5,300+ servers in 58 countries
Streaming Supported: Netflix, Hulu, HBO, BBC iPlayer, Showtime, Amazon Prime, Kodi, Sling TV, Disney+, etc.

NordVPN was hacked in 2018, so some people question its security. No user-ID info was accessed, however, as they do NOT keep user identity logs.

ExpressVPN

Cost: US$8.32 to $12.95 per month, depending on how many months you buy together
Locations: 3,000+ servers in 160 locations across 94 countries
Streaming Supported: Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Amazon Prime, SlingTV, Kodi, Hulu, HBO Now, etc.

Windscribe

Cost: US$4 to $9 depending on how many months you buy together or “Build Your Own” plan for just US$1 per location
Locations: 400+ servers in 60 locations
Streaming Supported: Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now

IPVanish

Cost: US$6.49 to $10 per month, depending on how many months you buy together
Locations: 1,300+ servers in 70+ countries
Streaming Supported: BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, HBO Now, SlingTV, Kodi

SurfShark

Cost: US$1.77 to $11.95 per month, depending on how many months you buy together
Locations: 800+ locations in 50+ countries
Streaming Supported: Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, etc.

CyberGhost

Cost: US$2.75 to $12.95 per month, depending on how many months you buy together
Locations: 3700 servers in 60+ countries
Streaming Supported: Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Amazon Prime, SlingTV, Kodi, Hulu, HBO Now, etc.

TunnelBear

Cost: US$4.99 to $9.99 per month, depending on how many months you buy together
Locations: ~1000 servers in 23 countries
Streaming Supported: Netflix

TunnelBear is a really cute interface (the bears literally digs tunnels!) that is easy to use for beginners and works great for most internet activities. However, many people have reported issues streaming with TunnelBear. I was able to stream when I tried this VPN but sometimes had to disconnect and reconnect several times to get a server that worked.