How to stay safe on public Wi-Fi when travelling

Affiliate Disclosure: We may earn a small commission if you purchase through our link, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products and services that we genuinely use ourselves and believe offer value to you. Your support helps us continue creating free travel guides and resources. Thank you!

Hi Reader,

Have you ever connected to free Wi-Fi at a hotel, airport, or cafe without thinking twice?

Yup, we’ve definitely done that before and didn’t realise the risks involved.

Like many travellers, we’d check our emails, log into online banking, book accommodation, or scroll through social media without thinking about who else might be able to see this information.

It wasn’t until recently, when we connected to the London Underground Wi-Fi, that we stopped and thought…..

“How secure is this connection?”

At the time, we were actually checking our online banking app, and it made us realise we should really consider ways to help protect ourselves against vulnerable public Wi-Fi connections.

We’d heard of a VPN, but it prompted us to finally get it installed and activated.

If you’ve never heard of one before, don’t worry; we hadn’t paid too much attention to them ourselves until recently.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates an encrypted connection between your device and the internet, helping to add an extra layer of privacy and security when you’re online.

The easiest way to think about it is…..

Without a VPN, sending information online can be like sending a postcard. Anyone handling it along the way could potentially read what’s written on it.

With a VPN, it’s more like placing that postcard inside a sealed envelope. Your information is encrypted, making it much harder for others to see what’s inside.

For us, it’s become one of those travel essentials we didn’t realise we needed until we learnt more about it.

We have ours switched on as soon as we access the internet, be that our home Wi-Fi, mobile network, hotel, airport, or cafe. It adds that extra peace of mind.

After researching a few different providers, we chose NordVPN, and it’s the one we use every day.

There are three main packages available, and we opted for the complete plan because, for only around 80p more per month than the basic plan, it includes additional features we felt were worth having.

Some of these features are:

Protection for up to 10 devices
Threat Protection Pro™ to help block malware, malicious websites and trackers
Scam and phishing protection
Dark Web Monitor
Ad and tracker blocking
Scam Call Protection (where available)

For us, it’s a small price to pay for something that helps us feel more confident whenever we’re travelling and connecting to any Wi-Fi.

If you’re planning a trip to Sri Lanka, or anywhere else, we’d recommend setting up a VPN before you leave home. It only takes a couple of minutes to install, and it’s one less thing to think about once you’re on the road.

You can find out more about NordVPN here.

Have you used a VPN before, or is this something you've never considered?

Just hit reply; we'd love to hear from you.

Happy travelling

Bev & Shams