Looking to snag a discount on your next holiday or entertainment package?
From cheaper flights to lower hotel prices, a VPN can do more than just protect your privacy online — it can help you save money while traveling and streaming. Many booking platforms and digital services adjust pricing based on your location, but using a VPN allows you to compare prices from different countries and potentially unlock better deals.
Whether you’re planning your next holiday, renting a car abroad, or looking for a more affordable streaming subscription, a VPN can be a surprisingly useful money-saving tool.
Here are five ways a VPN may help cut your everyday travel and entertainment costs.
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1. Booking flights
Your airline prices can change based on your location. Using a VPN lets you compare fares from different countries, which can sometimes reveal lower prices for the same flight. By changing your virtual location to countries with lower costs of living (e.g., Malaysia, India) or the airline’s home market, you may unlock cheaper fares.
For example, a London-to-New York flight might cost £520 when searched from the UK, but only £320 when browsing through a VPN server in another country like Vietnam.
2. Booking train tickets
You can use a VPN to find the best train ticket prices for services like the Eurostar
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Some rail companies and third-party ticket sites offer different pricing or promotions depending on where you’re browsing from, too. A VPN can help uncover regional discounts.
For instance, a Eurostar ticket viewed from the UK site may be more expensive than the same route viewed through a French VPN connection with a local promotion applied.
3. Booking hotels and Airbnbs
Hotel and accommodation prices often fluctuate based on demand, browsing history, and location. A VPN can help you compare rates as if you were booking from another country.
A hotel room in Paris could show as £185 per night from the UK, but £160 when checking through a VPN server in Germany. You can also change your VPN server to a few different locations to ensure you’re truly getting the best deal.
4. Booking rental cars
You can use a VPN to find the best deal on a car rental
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Rental car companies sometimes adjust pricing depending on the customer’s region and local market demand. A VPN can help you spot lower regional rates.
The same compact rental car at Heathrow Airport might appear at £62/day from a UK search, but it could show prices of £49/day through a VPN connection in another European country.
5. Subscriptions to streaming platforms
Streaming subscriptions and pay-per-view pricing can vary between countries. A VPN may help you access lower-cost subscription plans or content libraries available elsewhere.
A streaming platform subscription like Netflix that costs £12.99/month without ads in the UK may offer a lower equivalent price in another country due to regional pricing differences.
How to change VPN servers
Changing VPN servers can be achieved by opening your VPN app, navigating to the server list or map, and selecting a new location. You can then click or tap the desired city or country to connect, which updates your IP address to that region.
If you don’t manually switch servers, then oftentimes it will connect to the nearest one with the best connection automatically.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is software that protects and anonymises everything you do online | UNSPLASH
How a VPN protects your online identity
When you enable a VPN, it routes all of your online traffic via an encrypted tunnel, connecting to a network of secure servers across the globe. These VPN servers are managed by the brand, so the total number available will vary based on the provider you’re picked.
The best VPNs rely on the same military-grade encryption as governments in Britain and the United States. The encryption scrambles your data into an unreadable format, preventing third parties from monitoring your activity.
This is so effective that it’ll even stop the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that connects you to the internet from keeping a record of the websites you’ve visited, how long you’ve spent on each site, and your current location.
Advertisers, trackers, and hackers are also blind when it comes to tracking your web history.
Heading online without a VPN enabled is a little like sending a postcard, with your personal message easily visible on the back as it makes its way to the intended recipient through the Royal Mail system.
However, when running a VPN on your device, that same postcard is placed inside multiple envelopes and packages, so the message on the back is hidden from everyone as it makes its way to its final destination.
