You connect to the hotel wifi the second you check in. Then you check your bank balance. Someone else on that same network, if they know what they are doing, can see exactly what you just did. That gap right there, the one nobody warns you about, is what public wifi safety actually comes down to.
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I do this constantly.
I connect to hotel and cafe wifi without a second thought. More than once, I’ve logged into my bank account or my email on that exact same open network. It happened in an airport lounge, a hostel common room, wherever.
The problem
Airports, cafes, and budget hostels do not secure their wifi the way your home network protects you. Everyone on it shares the same open connection. Anyone who knows what they’re doing can intercept what travels between your device and the internet. You have no way of knowing who else is on that network or what they are doing.
That quick check of your bank balance could be happening in plain view of a stranger two tables away. You would never know it. That invisibility is exactly what makes public wifi safety so easy to ignore, until it isn’t. A shared password at the hostel front desk does not change this. Everyone in the building typing that same password is still on the same open network as you.
Why you keep doing it anyway
Not because you decided the risk was acceptable. Because connecting to wifi is automatic. You do not stop to ask whether this specific network is safe, you just want to get online. That gap, between knowing the risk exists and actually thinking about it in the moment, is exactly what a VPN closes. It does not need you to remember. It just runs.
What actually fixes it
A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the internet. Even if someone else on the same network tries to intercept your traffic, the VPN scrambles it into something useless. It also hides your real location by routing your connection through a server elsewhere. That said, a VPN will not fix everything. It will not undo a weak, reused password, and catching a phishing link is a separate feature, not the encryption itself. But it shuts that exact door completely. No one on your network can read what you send while you log into your bank.
Why NordVPN
I use NordVPN because it covers this without asking me to think about it. Turn it on, and it runs quietly in the background on up to ten devices at once. Your phone and laptop are both covered under one plan. Even the entry-level plan includes scam and phishing protection, the feature that actually catches a phishing link. The higher tiers add anti-malware plus an ad and tracker blocker. Both are genuinely useful while you’re jumping between airport wifi and hotel networks you know nothing about.
NordVPN also has an independently audited no-logs policy. Outside auditors, not just the company itself, have confirmed they do not track or store what you do while connected. That matters here specifically: once you add a VPN, public wifi safety means moving your trust from the network to the provider. It’s worth knowing that outside auditors have actually checked that trust. Pricing starts around €3.49 a month on the two-year plan, up to about €6.59 for the plan with the most extras. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee if it turns out not to be for you.
It’s the same kind of unglamorous, five-minute setup as avoiding foreign transaction fees. Easy to skip, easy to forget, and cheap insurance once it’s actually in place. Full honesty, the way I did with NordPass: NordVPN sits at 4.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot from over 50,000 reviews. Not a handful of cherry-picked five-star ratings, a large, well-supported number. Do not wait until you are already logged into your bank on hostel wifi to think about this. Set up NordVPN before your next trip, it takes a few minutes.
Before your next trip
Turn the VPN on before you connect to any hotel, hostel, airport, or cafe wifi, not after. It only protects what happens while it is running. Public wifi that makes you sign up with your email first is not safer. It just collects your data first, then hands you the same unsecured connection everyone else is on.
None of that has anything to do with real public wifi safety. If you check your bank or anything financial while traveling, do it with the VPN on every time. Not just when you happen to remember. Set it up and test it at home before you leave. That way, you’re not troubleshooting an app for the first time on unfamiliar wifi in another country.
If this is the kind of thing that quietly worries you
Solo travel safety is not just the big, dramatic scenarios. It is also the ordinary login on an ordinary network that nobody warns you about. This is exactly the kind of thing I walk through in my book. That way, you already know what to do instead of figuring it out mid-trip. It’s the same instinct behind other small habits I write about here, like password safety for solo travelers.
Do it before you need it
Public wifi safety does not have to be complicated. I still connect to hotel and cafe wifi without thinking twice. What changed is that I turn the VPN on first, so it does not matter anymore. Setting up NordVPN takes a few minutes. The next time you check your bank balance on hostel wifi, you won’t even have to think about it.
That small shift, from reacting to noticing early, is what solo travel confidence is actually built from. It’s not about being fearless. It’s about building small habits that let you relax instead of quietly worrying under the surface. That’s the thread that runs through everything in the book, one small habit at a time.
