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Travel host Samantha Brown shares her must-have items for every trip and explains why big bucket-list vacations are a little overrated.
- Using a virtual private network (VPN) to find travel deals is a highly touted travel hack.
- The flight search yielded minimal savings, with price differences of only a few dollars.
- Experts have warned that travelers may need to prove they reside in the country to secure certain deals.
When I researched hotels and flights to London for my summer vacation, I decided to do what the locals do.
I changed my location to the UK using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in hopes of finding a deal. This is a much-hyped travel hack.
A December 2025 blog post on NordVPN’s website says, “Travel sites often use dynamic pricing, which means you’ll see different prices depending on your location and browsing history.” “You can use a VPN to get the best deals on international flights by switching to a server in another country or region. This trick can make a big difference, especially during the holiday season when ticket prices soar before Christmas and New Year.”
I decided to try it myself, but my search didn’t yield the results I expected. Here’s why:
Can a VPN help you find better travel deals?
For experimental purposes, I used NordVPN to search Hotels.com for weekend travel itineraries in early June. Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch was listed for about $910 for a two-night stay. The US site listed the price slightly differently, but the total cost was about the same at $906 (it looked more expensive if you booked across the pond).
I decided to try my luck with a rental car and looked into Hertz options for pickup at Heathrow Airport (LHR). Small cars (such as the Ford Fiesta) were similarly more expensive on the UK site, priced at around $229, compared to around $222 on the US version.
I actually went to Mexico and looked into the numbers.
The Westin Resort & Spa Cancun was listed for about $300 for two nights on the Mexican version of Hotels.com, but was listed at a modest discount of $297 on the U.S. site. Meanwhile, Hertz’s Mexico and U.S. sites had the same price of $41.96 for a mid-range 2/4-door car rented from Cancun International Airport (CUN).
I also attempted the same comparison on both trips using another VPN provider, ExpressVPN. Hotels.com asked me to complete a digital puzzle to prove my humanity, and even when I did, I couldn’t pass (I’ll ponder what this says about me later). This time I used Booking.com to search for hotels.
Still, the results were almost the same, with only minor differences. For example, the Mexican and U.S. versions of Booking.com had even closer prices for hotels in Cancun.
Marijus Briedis, NordVPN’s chief technology officer, said prices can vary widely “depending on the website, time of day, and where the servers are located.”
“If you keep trying different options, you can find better deals online,” he told USA TODAY via email. “Some sites change their prices based on your location, and you may save the most by connecting through a less obvious country. A 2025 study found that using servers in places like Turkey, Poland, Croatia, and Moldova could give you a better deal than connecting from the country you’re traveling to.”
However, when I set the location to Turkey and reran the London hotel and car rental search, the hotel prices were the same on both the Turkish and US Hotels.com sites. Rental cars were also more affordable at about $245 versus about $273 on the US Hertz site.
ExpressVPN, Hotels.com, Hertz, and Booking.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Can I get cheaper flights with a VPN?
My flight search was slightly more successful. The UK version of Google Flights showed Iberia as the cheapest flight from the New York area to LHR. With NordVPN, I found a round-trip itinerary from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Madrid for just under $583. The same flight was listed for $583 in the US version.
The cheapest flights from the New York area to Mexico were a bit more affordable if you set your location in that country. A United flight from EWR to CUN via Houston was $411.42 round trip on the Mexican version of the site, but $413 from the US.
I got nearly the same results when viewing flights with ExpressVPN. Google declined to comment.
Can I use a VPN to book travel?
Robert Cole, senior research analyst for lodging and leisure travel at Focus Light, previously told USA TODAY that different distribution channels and locations may have different pricing structures.
For example, hotels can ask third-party booking platforms to offer lower rates but only list those rates in certain locations. “They say, ‘That’s great, but we won’t sell it in the United States,'” he says. “You know, ‘We’re a resort in Miami Beach or a resort in Cancun (or) the Dominican Republic. We want German business.’
To obtain certain rates, travelers may also be required to provide their home address or a local driver’s license (if renting a car). “My warning is that you can do that, but you have to be very careful who you’re dealing with,” Cole added. “So travelers should be very careful.”
Is it worth using a VPN to book travel?
It depends. I went in almost empty-handed, but spent money in the process. One month of access to NordVPN and ExpressVPN cost about $14 each (subscription prices vary, however).
But maybe it was just bad luck.
“If there is a price difference, that difference can be large,” says NordVPN’s Briedis. “Our research found savings of up to 40% on some flights and hotels. A family of four who booked a flight from Mexico City to Disneyland Orlando saved almost $600 by connecting through Moldova. These savings don’t happen every time, but even the occasional discount can be worth it for expensive bookings.”
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. Please contact us at ndiller@usatoday.com.
