Why a VPN is non-negotiable on the road

Honesty note: the NordVPN links here are, or will become, affiliate links. Commission never changes your price, and we recommend the same product we would without it.

What actually goes wrong without one

• Hostile or sloppy networks. Every login you type on shared Wi-Fi is visible to whoever controls (or compromised) the router. Over a 90-day stay you will use dozens of networks you know nothing about; a VPN encrypts the lot.
• Your bank panics. Log in from a Georgian IP after a lifetime of home-country logins and fraud systems lock you out at the worst moment. Connecting through a home-country VPN server keeps your digital location boring.
• Subscriptions stop working. The streaming you pay for, sports passes, even some government portals geo-block or shrink abroad. A home IP restores what you already paid for.
• Local blocks. Some shuffle destinations restrict services you rely on (VoIP apps have historically been throttled in Morocco, platform blocks come and go in Türkiye). A VPN routes around the inconvenience.

Why NordVPN specifically

NordVPN is the boring, correct choice, which is precisely what you want from security software:

• Independently audited no-logs policy: the claim that matters most, verified by outside auditors more than once.
• Fast modern protocols (their WireGuard-based NordLynx), so video calls from a Tbilisi apartment do not turn to soup.
• Servers in 100+ countries, including everywhere you would pretend to be (home) and everywhere you will actually be.
• Apps for everything: laptop, phone, tablet, and router-level setups for the apartment's TV months.
• Threat protection extras: malware-domain and tracker blocking baked in, useful on networks you would rather not trust with DNS.

The honest caveats

• The advertised price is the multi-year promo; renewal rates are higher. Buy the long plan knowingly.
• A VPN is not anonymity or a security force field: it encrypts transport and moves your apparent location, nothing more. Phishing still phishes.
• Some banking apps object to known VPN IP ranges; occasionally you will toggle it off for one login. Annoying, survivable.
• Streaming platforms play whack-a-mole with VPN servers: expect an occasional server switch, not perfection.

The setup that works

Install before you fly, log everything in at home, set auto-connect on untrusted Wi-Fi, and pick a home-country server as your default. From then on it is invisible: which is the entire point. Total cost runs a few dollars a month on the long plans, against a season where your laptop is your income.

Set up NordVPN before your next rotation →

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