Best VPN for Travel: Secure & Fast Picks for Trips

By K-Beauty Reviews Editorial Team · Updated October 11, 2026

Last updated: October 11, 2026

The best VPN for travel is not one product but a pairing: the GL.iNet GL-MT3000 Beryl AX travel router as the hardware and a flat-rate no-log subscription such as Mullvad VPN as the service behind it. Together they put every device you carry — phone, laptop, tablet, e-reader, even a hotel room television — behind one encrypted tunnel, over Wi-Fi 6, with a 2.5 Gbps WAN port for wired hotel connections. That combination suits frequent travelers who use airport, café and hotel Wi-Fi and want to configure their protection once rather than device by device. If your budget is tight, the GL.iNet Mango applies the same principle at entry-level speeds. If you want the fastest pocket router in this group, the GL.iNet Slate AX is the premium step up. As a general market guide, entry-tier travel routers sell under roughly $50, mid-range models sit in the $50–$120 band and premium models run above $120, with a no-log subscription adding a flat monthly cost that usually works out to less than a weekly coffee.

Top 3 Picks

Best overall: GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000)

The Beryl AX wins because it balances the four things that decide a travel VPN setup: a 2.5 Gbps WAN port for hotel Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 for congested airwaves, OpenWrt firmware with WireGuard and OpenVPN clients built in, and a pocketable body powered over USB-C. It is the router most travelers can configure once and forget, and its radio and port classes stay ahead of hotel internet for years rather than months.

Best budget: GL.iNet Mango (GL-MT300N-V2)

The Mango is the cheapest way into the same idea: it runs OpenWrt with VPN client support, carries two Ethernet ports and a USB 2.0 port, and draws so little power that a modest power bank can run it for a full travel day. Its single-band 2.4 GHz N300 radio and 10/100 Ethernet are entry-class, so it suits one or two devices, email, messaging and light browsing rather than 4K streaming.

Best premium: GL.iNet Slate AX (GL-AXT1800)

The Slate AX is the pick when several devices share the tunnel at once: Wi-Fi 6 AX1800, gigabit Ethernet ports, USB 3.0 and a microSD slot, with a faster processor than the Mango and a longer track record than the newer Beryl AX. Choose it over the Beryl AX if local storage sharing and a heavily documented, widely supported pocket router matter more to you than the newer model’s 2.5 Gbps WAN port.

Two other products round out the list. The GL.iNet Slate Plus (GL-A1300) is the mid-range compromise, and the ASUS RT-AX57 GO is the one to consider if you tether a phone’s 4G/5G connection or want to route a hotel television. The Mullvad VPN subscription is the service layer that pairs with any of them.

Quick Comparison

The table below compares the six products on the criteria that actually decide a travel VPN purchase: what the radio can carry, what the ports can accept, how the device behaves on public Wi-Fi, and what ongoing cost sits behind it. Two columns need a note before you read them. First, “price tier” is a band, not a quote — entry-tier travel routers generally sell under about $50, mid-range models land in the $50–$120 band and premium models sit above $120, and those bands shift with promotions and regional pricing, so treat the tier as a signal about the class of hardware rather than a fixed number. Second, the routers and the subscription answer the same question from opposite ends: a router without a subscription gives you a private network but not a different IP address abroad, and a subscription without a router leaves every device that cannot run an app — a smart TV, a games console, a work laptop with locked-down software — outside the tunnel. Most travelers who read this far end up buying one router and one subscription rather than choosing between them.

How We Chose

This roundup is research-based. Every product here was assessed against its published specification sheet, the manufacturer’s own documentation and long-standing category norms for travel networking — not by handling the units, and not by running speed tests. The criteria were applied in a fixed order. First, does the product solve a travel problem rather than a home-networking problem? A router that needs a wall socket, a long boot cycle or a permanent cloud account fails that test regardless of its spec sheet. Second, what class are the radio and the ports? A single-band 2.4 GHz N300 device and a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 AX3000 device are not competing for the same traveler, and the difference shows up the moment you sit in a hotel with forty neighbouring access points. Third, how does it handle the realities of public Wi-Fi: captive portals, shared passwords, networks that block VPN handshakes. Fourth, what is the upgrade path — is the firmware community-maintained, does the vendor publish updates, and will the device still be useful in three years. Finally, for the subscription, we weighed device limits, protocol support, logging policy and pricing model, because those four things determine whether a plan is worth renewing.

1. GL.iNet Beryl AX – Best for Most Trips

GL.iNet GL-MT3000 Beryl AX Wi-Fi 6 Travel Router, 2.5G WAN, VPN, OpenWrt

Included for 'Best VPN for Travel: Secure & Fast Picks for Trips' because the listing specifies 2.5G WAN and VPN, details this guide uses to compare options.

View on Amazon →

The Beryl AX is the router to buy if you want one device to cover an entire trip: a week of hotel Wi-Fi, a café work session, a conference with a captive portal, and a wired Ethernet socket in an older hotel room. It suits travelers who carry a laptop plus a phone and a tablet, who want encryption handled at the network level rather than app by app, and who are willing to spend ten minutes on a one-time setup. It also suits anyone staying in shared accommodation, where the Wi-Fi password is often printed on a card that half the building has seen, and where a private network behind your own password is worth more than the speed of the connection itself.

Key specs

• Radio: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), dual-band, AX3000 class — roughly 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz and 2,402 Mbps on 5 GHz in theoretical terms
• WAN port: 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, which accepts hotel and apartment wired connections far above typical hotel speeds
• LAN port: one gigabit Ethernet port for a laptop or a small switch
• USB: USB 3.0 port, usable for storage sharing or for tethering a phone or modem
• Firmware: OpenWrt-based with built-in WireGuard and OpenVPN client and server support, plus ad-blocking and DNS options
• Power: USB-C input, so the same charger or power bank that runs your phone can run the router

The strengths here are structural rather than cosmetic. The 2.5 Gbps WAN port is the most future-proof piece of the specification: hotel Ethernet is rarely faster than a few hundred Mbps today, but the port means the router never becomes the bottleneck when you plug it into a faster line, whether that is a fibre connection in a rented apartment or a colleague’s office network. Wi-Fi 6 matters more than raw throughput in practice, because OFDMA and better scheduling help when dozens of neighbouring networks are competing for the same channels — exactly the situation in a hotel corridor. The USB-C power input is a small detail with outsized travel value: no proprietary adapter to lose, no separate cable to pack.

OpenWrt support is the other reason this device sits at the top of the list. The VPN configuration is not a stripped-down “select a provider” menu; you import a WireGuard configuration file or enter your credentials, and the router handles the tunnel for every client behind it. That means a five-device subscription can cover an unlimited number of your own gadgets, because the VPN provider sees one connection, not five.

Pros

• 2.5 Gbps WAN port keeps the router relevant as hotel and apartment connections get faster
• Wi-Fi 6 dual-band radio performs better than older standards in crowded airspace
• WireGuard and OpenVPN clients built into the firmware, with no per-device app needed
• USB-C power means one charger and one power bank covers phone and router
• OpenWrt base gives a long, community-supported upgrade path and detailed documentation
• Small enough to live in a laptop bag’s accessory pocket

Cons

• Premium tier: you pay for Wi-Fi 6 and the 2.5 Gbps port even if your trips only ever touch slow hotel Wi-Fi
• Setup assumes some comfort with router admin panels and VPN configuration files
• No local storage slot, unlike the Slate AX’s microSD reader
• Overkill for a traveler whose only device is a phone that already runs a VPN app

Against the nearest alternative, the Slate AX, the choice comes down to recency versus maturity. The Beryl AX has the faster WAN port and the newer Wi-Fi 6 generation of the two GL.iNet pocket models; the Slate AX counters with a microSD slot for local file sharing and a longer record of published firmware updates. If you never plug into wired internet and never share files from the router, the Beryl AX is the more forward-looking purchase. If you want storage and a device that has been on the market and documented for longer, the Slate AX is the safer bet. Against the mid-range Slate Plus, the Beryl AX is a clear step up in radio class and port speed — worth the difference if you travel with three or more devices.

2. GL.iNet Mango – Best for Budget Travelers

GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango) Portable Mini Travel Wireless Pocket VPN WiFi Router - 2X Ethernet Ports | USB 2.0 | OpenWrt | OpenVPN/Wireguard for Public & Hotel Wi-Fi | Easy to Set up via Admin Panel

Included for 'Best VPN for Travel: Secure & Fast Picks for Trips' because the listing specifies 2X Ethernet Ports and USB 2.0, details this guide uses to compare options.

View on Amazon →

The Mango is for the traveler who wants the principle of a private travel network without spending much to get it. It suits backpackers, students, occasional travelers and anyone who wants a cheap second router to leave in a go-bag. It also suits a specific, practical use case: turning a single paid or password-protected Wi-Fi connection into a private network for two devices, or sharing one hotel connection between a laptop and a phone without typing the room’s password into both. It is not the router for a family of five streaming in four rooms, and it does not pretend to be.

Key specs

• Radio: single-band 2.4 GHz, 802.11n, N300 class
• Ports: two 10/100 Ethernet ports, so wired throughput tops out at 100 Mbps
• USB: one USB 2.0 port for storage or tethering
• Firmware: OpenWrt-based with VPN client support, including WireGuard and OpenVPN
• Power: micro-USB input at low draw, which makes long power-bank runtime realistic
• Size class: palm-sized, pocketable, light enough to forget in a bag

The Mango’s case rests on price and power draw. Because it runs a single 2.4 GHz radio and a low-power processor, it sips electricity — which turns an ordinary power bank into a multi-day power source (more on the arithmetic in the battery section below). Its firmware is the same OpenWrt family as its more expensive siblings, so the VPN workflow is familiar: import a configuration, connect, and every device behind the router is covered. Two Ethernet ports mean it can act as a small switch as well as an access point, which is useful in a hotel room with exactly one working socket.

The compromises are honest and predictable. A single-band 2.4 GHz radio is the most congested band in any building, so throughput and latency suffer exactly where you need them most. The 10/100 ports cap wired connections at 100 Mbps, which is fine for hotel internet and limiting for anything else. VPN throughput on an entry-class processor is measured in tens of Mbps rather than hundreds, so 4K streaming through the tunnel is not realistic; 1080p is, on a good day.

Pros

• Lowest entry cost of any product in this roundup
• Very low power draw, so a modest power bank covers a long travel day
• OpenWrt firmware with WireGuard and OpenVPN client support
• Two Ethernet ports for wired devices or a small switch
• Small and light enough to live permanently in a day bag

Cons

• 2.4 GHz only, the most congested band in hotels and apartments
• 10/100 Ethernet caps wired throughput at 100 Mbps
• Entry-class VPN throughput limits high-bitrate streaming through the tunnel
• Micro-USB power connector is an older standard and a wear point over years of use

Against the nearest alternative in this list — the mid-range Slate Plus — the Mango is roughly one radio generation and one port generation behind. The Slate Plus adds 5 GHz, dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and gigabit-class Ethernet, which fixes the two weaknesses that matter most in a crowded building. The Mango wins on price and on power draw, and it remains the right answer for a traveler who needs email, messaging, maps and a private network more than throughput. If you can stretch to the mid-range tier, do; if you cannot, the Mango still delivers the core benefit of a travel router, which is that the network behind you is yours.

3. GL.iNet Slate AX – Best for Power Users

GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 Slate AX Pocket-Sized Wi-Fi 6 Travel Router with VPN

Included for 'Best VPN for Travel: Secure & Fast Picks for Trips' as a relevant option in this category; details come from the product listing.

View on Amazon →

The Slate AX is the pick for travelers who treat a hotel room as a temporary office. It suits remote workers on multi-week stays, small teams sharing one connection, and anyone who wants to attach storage to the router and share files across devices without a cloud service. It also suits households that travel together: one router, one subscription, and every family member’s phone, tablet and laptop behind the same tunnel, with the VPN provider counting a single connection rather than one per person.

Key specs

• Radio: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), dual-band, AX1800 class
• Ports: gigabit Ethernet WAN and gigabit Ethernet LAN
• Storage: microSD card slot for sharing files over the local network
• USB: USB 3.0 port for drives or tethering
• Firmware: OpenWrt-based, with WireGuard and OpenVPN client and server modes, ad-blocking and DNS controls
• Power: USB-C input

The Slate AX’s advantage is headroom. A faster processor than the Mango’s means the VPN tunnel keeps up with more simultaneous clients before throughput per device drops, which is the real-world difference between “works for one laptop” and “works for a family”. Wi-Fi 6 on both bands, combined with a 5 GHz option, means you can push devices onto the less crowded band in a building full of 2.4 GHz networks. The microSD slot is unusual in this category and quietly useful: plug in a card, and the router becomes a small file server for the trip, which is handy for photographers, videographers and anyone moving large files between a laptop and a tablet without cables.

Gigabit Ethernet on both WAN and LAN is the practical sweet spot for travel. It comfortably exceeds almost any hotel connection you will meet, and it is fast enough to serve as a home router between trips, which extends the value of the purchase well beyond the vacation it was bought for.

Pros

• Wi-Fi 6 dual-band with a 5 GHz option for crowded airspace
• Faster processor than entry-tier pocket routers, so more clients share the tunnel gracefully
• microSD slot turns the router into a small travel file server
• USB 3.0 and USB-C power, both current standards
• Gigabit ports on both WAN and LAN, useful at home as well as away
• Mature, widely documented firmware with a long update history

Cons

• Premium tier pricing for hardware most casual travelers will not fully use
• Wi-Fi 6 AX1800 class is a step below the Beryl AX’s AX3000 class on paper
• No 2.5 Gbps WAN port, so it is the slower of the two premium options on wired connections
• Configuration depth can overwhelm a first-time buyer who just wants a switch-on solution

Against the Beryl AX, the Slate AX trades a newer, faster WAN port for a storage slot and a longer documented firmware history. Against the Slate Plus, it is a clear generation ahead: Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 5, and a processor that handles more clients before the tunnel becomes the bottleneck. If your trips involve one laptop and a phone, the Slate Plus is enough. If your trips involve four or more devices, file sharing, or several hours of video calls a day, the Slate AX earns its premium tier.

4. GL.iNet Slate Plus – Best for Mid-Range Value

GL.iNet GL-A1300 Pocket VPN Travel Router - Portable Wi-Fi Router for Travel, Easy to Set up, Connect to Public & Hotel Wi-Fi login Page

Included for 'Best VPN for Travel: Secure & Fast Picks for Trips' because the listing specifies Portable Wi-Fi Router for Travel and Easy to Set up, details this guide uses to compare options.

View on Amazon →

The Slate Plus is the sensible middle: a pocket router that fixes the Mango’s two biggest weaknesses — single-band 2.4 GHz and 10/100 Ethernet — without jumping to premium pricing. It suits first-time travel-router buyers, business travelers who want a dependable device for hotel Wi-Fi and a wired socket, and anyone who wants a spare router that can also serve as a home access point between trips.

Key specs

• Radio: dual-band Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), AC1300 class, with both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz available
• Ports: gigabit-class Ethernet WAN and LAN
• USB: a USB port for storage or for tethering a phone or modem
• Firmware: OpenWrt-based with VPN client support, including WireGuard and OpenVPN
• Power: USB-C input, matching modern chargers and power banks

The case for the Slate Plus is that it removes the two compromises that make cheap travel routers frustrating. Adding 5 GHz gives you a band that is usually far less crowded in hotels and apartment buildings, and moving from 10/100 to gigabit-class Ethernet means the wired port stops being the slowest link in the chain. Wi-Fi 5 rather than Wi-Fi 6 is the remaining gap, and for most travel internet — typically somewhere between 10 and 100 Mbps in a hotel, faster in a serviced apartment — that gap rarely shows up. Where Wi-Fi 6 helps is in dense airspace with many competing networks, which is precisely the situation where Wi-Fi 5 still works but with less efficiency.

The USB port and OpenWrt firmware keep the device flexible. You can tether a phone when there is no usable Wi-Fi, attach storage for local sharing, or run a VPN client that covers every device behind the router. The VPN workflow is the same as the premium models: import a WireGuard configuration, connect, and the whole network is routed through the tunnel.

Pros

• Dual-band Wi-Fi 5 with a usable 5 GHz option for crowded buildings
• Gigabit-class Ethernet removes the wired bottleneck found on entry-tier models
• OpenWrt firmware with WireGuard and OpenVPN client support
• USB-C power and a USB data port for tethering or storage
• Mid-range tier pricing for hardware that covers most real travel scenarios
• Doubles as a small home access point or backup router between trips

Cons

• Wi-Fi 5 rather than Wi-Fi 6, so it is a generation behind the premium options in dense airspace
• VPN throughput sits below the

  Ready to decide? Our #1 pick for 2026 is the GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000).

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