Whether you’re a student exploring Europe during your gap year, a freelancer rocking that digital nomad life, or just a globetrotter making your way through your ultimate travel bucket list, staying safe while you travel should definitely be one of your top priorities. Enter… VPNs!

We’re sure you’ve come across the term somewhere out in the vast wonderland that is the internet, but it can get rather confusing figuring out what exactly a VPN is or why you need one.

We get the confusion, so we’ve compiled something to help: an introduction to VPNs and six reasons why you need one in your life. 🙌

First things first: what’s a virtual private network (VPN)?

A virtual private network (or VPN) is a handy-dandy piece of software that helps prevent hackers, government entities, and other nosey parkers from accessing or corrupting your private data.

Frankly, if you don’t want malicious parties trawling through every single bad photo you’ve ever taken (or using your credit card information to buy Kim Kardashian’s entire activewear range), you’re probably in the market for a VPN. 👀

This is because a VPN creates an encrypted connection between your devices and its own servers. 

Information from the websites you’re trying to access then gets routed through your VPN provider’s servers, keeping your devices fully protected behind the layer of security that the encrypted connection provides.

Any information from those websites is also relayed to you via this encrypted connection. This leaves internet villains none the wiser about who you are, where you are, or what any of your personal information is.

6 reasons to get a VPN if you’re travelling in the EU

We know what you’re going to say: