A VPN for travel solves two distinct problems: accessing services from home that are not available in your destination country, and protecting your data on public networks. Most travel VPN reviews focus on the first problem. Both matter.
The access problem is most acute when traveling to countries with significant internet restrictions. China blocks Google, Gmail, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and most Western news sites. Russia and Iran have similar but less comprehensive blocks. If you are traveling to these destinations, you need a VPN that works specifically in those countries, which means one with obfuscation technology that disguises VPN traffic as regular HTTPS traffic.
Not all VPNs work in China. The Chinese firewall specifically targets VPN protocols. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Astrill are the most commonly cited VPNs that maintain working connections in China as of mid-2026, though the situation changes and you should verify current status before traveling. Always download and set up your VPN before you arrive. You cannot reliably download VPN apps from inside China because the app stores and VPN websites are blocked.
The security problem on public WiFi applies everywhere, not just restricted countries. Hotel networks, airport WiFi, and cafe connections are all shared with other users. A VPN encrypts your traffic and hides your activity from anyone monitoring the local network. See our public WiFi security guide at /vpn-for-public-wifi-security-2026 for the technical details.
For travel specifically, look for a VPN with apps on all your devices, at least 5 simultaneous connections (laptops, phones, tablets), split tunneling so you can route local services without the VPN while keeping sensitive traffic protected, and a no-logs policy audited by a third party. Server count matters less than reliability and speed in the regions you will visit.
Set up and test the VPN before you travel. Connect to your home country's servers to check speed. Connect to servers in your destination country to check availability. Enable the kill switch. Configure split tunneling if you want to exclude local services. Arriving in a new country and trying to figure out VPN settings on an unknown WiFi network is the wrong time to discover a configuration problem.