What is TunnelBear and Why Every Traveler Needs It

One of my must-have additions to my laptop when I travel is TunnelBear, and it’s something that I highly suggest every traveler install on their computer.

What is TunnelBear

TunnelBear is a secure VPN that allows you to virtually place yourself in over 20 common countries across the world with the click of a button.

Here’s Where I Use It

Did you know you can sometimes find airfare cheaper if you search in another country? So, if you’re looking to fly to Switzerland, for example, by searching as if you’re in Switzerland, you may come up with different prices than what you’re offered while searching within the United States.

I love watching foreign TV shows – hey, the BBC has some great stuff. 🙂 Unfortunately, a lot of times you need to be a resident of that country to watch. Not if you’re using TunnelBear, though. With the click of a button, you transform yourself to that other country and you can watch TV shows without an issue. It also works vice versa, too. Say you’re in Australia but want to watch live television on your Verizon account. Normally, it would kick you out recognizing you aren’t in the US. With TunnelBear enabled, you won’t have that issue.

When you get abroad, sometimes you don’t want sites redirecting to the local language. If you’re in Italy, the last thing you want is for Google to display all of the results in Italian. Using TunnelBear and setting the country to the USA, you can make Google think you’re still at home, thus producing all of the results local to you. The same thing goes for any other page you’d normally login in to, that “knows” where you are and wants to provide you the local version.

How Much Does it Cost?

It’s cheap, really:

• There’s a free version of 500MB every month. For most people, you’ll go through this very quickly. If you’re watching videos, don’t even bother considering this plan.
• If you want unlimited data, it’s $7.00/month paid monthly or $4.16/month paid annually.

I have the annual subscription and have used it for several years now without a hiccup. There’s even a mobile version, too.

My Take

I really find TunnelBear worth the annual subscription. I travel a fair amount internationally, where having websites based back in the US is useful. I also love it for watching television shows and other videos based in other countries while sitting at home. It’s super convenient to use and doesn’t require any technical skill. You literally click one icon on your computer and then select which country you want to “go” to and you’re all set.

You can buy TunnelBear here.