Travel Tech for Holiday Trips and Airport Wi-Fi

1. Proton VPN, a free plan for a short trip

At home on your own Wi-Fi, you probably don't need a VPN. On a trip, you often do. Open networks, and fake hotspots set up to look like the airport's real one, are the cases a VPN is made for. Proton VPN (opens in a new tab) has a free plan that doesn't ask for a credit card, doesn't show ads and doesn't cap your data. The limits are one device at a time, medium speed and servers in 10 countries the app picks for you. For a laptop on hotel Wi-Fi, that's usually enough.

If the trip is longer, or you want the phone and the laptop covered at the same time, VPN Plus covers 10 devices, servers in 140+ countries, streaming and NetShield, which blocks ads, trackers and known malware sites. The apps are open source, and the company is based in Switzerland.

On Proton's public VPN pricing page on Nov 10, 2026, VPN Plus was $2.99 a month on the 12-month plan, billed at $35.88 for the first year, then $83.88 a year. The page also has a 24-month option; we didn't get a clean read of that prepaid total on this visit, so check it at checkout. Proton says that when you use our link, VPN Plus is 75% off the 24-month plan until Cyber Monday, Nov 30, 2026. Check the price and the renewal price at checkout before you pay.

Good for: a short trip, or anyone who wants to try a VPN before paying. Skip if: you need one free account on your phone and laptop at the same time.

2. NordVPN, one paid plan for the phones and laptops on the trip

NordVPN (opens in a new tab) has no free plan. Every plan covers 10 devices at once, which is the usual reason to pick it for a family trip. Even the Basic plan includes scam and phishing protection, which blocks known malicious sites while you're connected. It only catches sites it already knows about, so it isn't a reason to stop checking links.

When we checked NordVPN's own pricing page on Oct 29, 2026, the cheapest way in was the Basic plan at $3.49 a month on the two-year deal: $94.23 for the first 27 months (that includes three bonus months), then $139.08 a year. Month to month it was $14.99, which is steep, so only go monthly for a single trip. We weren't able to reload that pricing page on Nov 10, 2026, so treat those numbers as the last official prices we could read, and check the live checkout price.

Nord says NordVPN (opens in a new tab) is up to 78% off 2-year plans, plus 3 extra months, through Dec 9, 2026, so the price at checkout may be lower than the prices above. Check the price and the renewal price at checkout before you pay.

Good for: a household traveling with several devices, or anyone who already knows they want a paid VPN. Skip if: you only need a VPN for a few hotel nights. Proton's free plan covers that.

3. Proton Pass, so you aren't typing passwords on a hotel PC

A hotel business-center computer is a bad place to type a bank password. Use your own phone, and let a password manager fill the login in. Proton Pass (opens in a new tab) has a free plan with unlimited logins, notes and credit cards, on unlimited devices, with no credit card required. That's the phone plus the travel laptop, on one account.

If you want to pay for Pass Plus, Proton's public Pass pricing page on Nov 10, 2026 showed $1.99 a month, billed at $23.88 for the first 12 months, then $35.88 a year. Proton showed $4.99 a month as the usual price, marked 60% off. Proton also says Pass Plus is 60% off the 12-month plan when you use our link, until Cyber Monday, Nov 30, 2026. Check the price and the renewal price at checkout before you pay. You can cancel a paid plan within 30 days and get the payment back.

Pass Plus adds a built-in spot for two-step verification codes, which is handy when you're away from the device you usually use for those codes. For the longer comparison, see Which Password Manager Should a Beginner Use?.

Good for: anyone who will travel with more than one device, or who still keeps passwords in a notes app. Skip if: you already use Apple Passwords or Google Password Manager, with a different password on every site, and those already sync to the phone you're taking.

4. NordPass, the paid option if you'll stay signed in on every device

NordPass (opens in a new tab) comes from Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN. The free plan saves and fills in logins, but it allows only one active session on one device at a time. That's awkward on a trip if you switch between a phone and a laptop. Premium lets you stay signed in on unlimited devices at once, and it adds checks for weak or reused passwords, a scanner for known data breaches, sharing and file attachments. Personal paid plans come with 30 days to cancel and get the payment back.

We couldn't read NordPass's prices on its own pages, and we don't have a verified Black Friday offer for it, so we aren't quoting a dollar amount or a sale. Check the checkout total and the renewal price.

Good for: someone who will pay so the app stays signed in on the phone and the travel laptop together. Skip if: you want that on a free plan. Proton Pass does it for $0.

5. NordLocker, for the scans you shouldn't leave in ordinary cloud storage

A photo of a passport, a booking confirmation, a copy of travel insurance: those are the files people upload in a hurry and forget about. NordLocker (opens in a new tab) is an encrypted cloud locker from the team behind NordVPN. Files are encrypted on the computer with your key before they go to the cloud, so the company shouldn't be able to see what's in them. You can sync them, back them up and share a file with a link or an email invite that uses a code.

The free plan includes 3 GB of private cloud storage, with no credit card, plus local encryption on the device. That's enough for a handful of document scans. Paid plans add 500 GB or 2 TB. NordLocker's site lists a Windows app, Android and iOS apps, and a web app that works in major browsers. We didn't see a separate Mac app listed on Nov 10, 2026, so a Mac user would use the browser app. Set this up at home too, and test that you can open a file from your phone.

We couldn't read the paid prices on NordLocker's own plans page, and we don't have a verified Black Friday offer for it, so we aren't quoting a dollar amount. Check the introductory price and the renewal price at checkout. VAT may apply.

Good for: anyone carrying passport or insurance scans. Skip if: you already keep those only on paper, or in a locker you already trust.