Watch Your Favourite TV Shows Abroad with NordVPN

Une personne regarde la télévision avec un écran affichant un VPN activé, tout en mangeant du pop-corn
To the point Learn how NordVPN can help you watch your favourite TV shows while you're travelling abroad.

Travelling to a new country is full of amazing experiences, and there’s always a new activity, food, or place that you should explore. However, all this excitement can take a toll, and sometimes, after a long day of adventuring, you just want to go back to the hotel, put your feet up, and watch some TV.

Unfortunately, depending on what country you’re visiting, your favourite streaming services and shows might not be available, throwing a wrench into your plans to chill.

Thankfully, with NordVPN, you can easily get around this issue and enjoy all your favourite entertainment while abroad.

What Is a VPN?

A VPN or virtual private network is an easy way to ensure that your online activity remains private and secure, and that you’re able to access online services and sites that may otherwise be restricted based on your location.

Essentially, a VPN lets you connect to a server in a country of your choice, making it seem as though you and your device are accessing the internet from that location.

Sondage

Why Use a VPN When You Travel?

Using a VPN can be incredibly helpful as it lets you keep your data secure while travelling, allowing you to safely access important services like your bank and credit card accounts.

Another great reason to use a VPN is that it lets you access your favourite streaming services even while you’re abroad.

When you’re travelling outside of your home country, and you try to access your favourite TV show on a service like Netflix or Prime, you’ll likely notice that the available content is different. You may even find that the show you were looking forward to watching on vacation isn’t even listed!

This is because the content that’s available through streaming services is typically geo-restricted, which means that the list of available shows/movies will change depending on which country you’re in.

Not only that, but some streaming services aren’t available at all in certain countries. For example, CraveTV and Sportsnet aren’t available outside of Canada, and services like Netflix, Prime, and Disney+ are actually banned in a handful of countries.

Rather than be limited to only the content and streaming services available in the country you’re visiting, you can instead choose to use a VPN through a service like NordVPN. With NordVPN, your device and chosen streaming service will think you’re in the country of your choice, giving you access to the content associated with that chosen location.

NordVPN watch while travelling EN

NordVPN for Fast and Reliable Content Streaming

When it comes to streaming content while you’re aboard, you’ll want to choose a VPN that is fast, has an extensive international server network to choose from, and has the ability to unblock geo-restricted content.

NordVPN is one of the best VPN services on the market, offering all of these features with over 7,000 servers in 118 countries, plus it uses military-grade encryption (AES-256), which makes your data unreadable should anyone try to capture it.

Travellers can also enjoy the following important features offered by NordVPN:

  • Automatic protection when connecting to unknown Wi-Fi networks
  • A kill switch that stops transmitting data if the VPN goes down
  • The ability to connect up to 10 devices at once, so you and your travel companions can all use it at the same time
  • A strict policy of not logging user activity, so there is no trace of your browsing history in NordVPN’s files
  • An intuitive app interface that’s available in multiple languages, including French, English, and more
NordVPN secure laptop

How to Use NordVPN to Watch Your Favourite TV Shows When You’re Travelling

Using NordVPN for secure streaming is incredibly easy.

  1. The first step is to choose one of NordVPN’s subscription packages and set up an account.
  2. Next, download and install the NordVPN app on your device(s). You can download the app and use NordVPN on up to 10 devices at the same time, giving you lots of ways to watch.
  3. When you’re ready to use the VPN for streaming or other secure internet tasks, simply sign in to your account and connect to the international server of your choice. Depending on what services you’re trying to use, there will be better and worse server choices (and we’ll talk more about this below).
  4. Now that you’re connected to a secure server in your country of choice, you can open the website or app for your streaming service, sit back, and enjoy.

Take note that it’s a good idea to sign up, download the app, and test out the process before you set off on your trip, so that you’re confident in how it works while still in familiar territory.

You can also use this as an opportunity to turn on the auto-connect feature to make sure your network is secure any time you connect to public Wi-Fi while travelling.

Tips and Tricks

Although streaming TV and movies with NordVPN is pretty straightforward, there are a few tips and tricks that can help make your experience that much smoother.

Error messages

When using NordVPN to stream, it’s possible that the streaming service may notice that you’re using a VPN to bypass the geo-restrictions, and this may trigger an error message.

NordVPN’s technology is pretty good at avoiding these issues, but if you do come across it, there are ways around this, such as trying a different server, clearing your cache and cookies, streaming directly from the service’s website rather than using the app, and more.

NordVPN has written a helpful blog post with some suggestions and instructions in case you come across this issue.

NordVPN slow internet

Slow internet connection

If you’re staying somewhere with slow internet or poor connectivity, you may find that it’s difficult (or even impossible) to connect to streaming services through a VPN on Wi-FI. In these instances, you’ll often watch the app try to load for an eternity before given up.

That said, sometimes slow internet or poor connectivity is something you can work around. For example, to ensure a fast connection, your best option is to choose a server that’s near to your current location, and to choose one that isn’t currently supporting too many users.

To learn more on how to keep your connection speedy, check out NordVPN’s 9 tips to make your VPN faster.

NordVPN local server

Choosing the right server

One final important tip is to choose the right server based on where you are and which service you’re trying to access.

For example, if you choose to auto-connect to any available VPN, you may end up connected to a server in a country that doesn’t support your chosen streaming service. If these cases, you obviously wouldn’t be able to access the content.

Looking at some popular streaming services, we can see that Prime isn’t available in Vietnam and Disney+ isn’t available in Kenya. Given this, regardless of where you’re physically located, connecting to a VPN server based in Vietnam or Kenya will not give you access to Prime or Disney+, respectively. However, if you were to chose a server in, let’s say, Australia, you’d have no problem enjoying any of the Prime or Disney+ content available down under.

If you’re travelling from Canada, you’ll want to remember that CraveTV and Sportsnet are only available within these borders, so if you’re hoping to keep up with your favourite sports team or Crave content, you’ll need to choose a server in Canada.

The content that’s available with each streaming service will be different depending on which country you choose. For example, Netflix offers a lot of different shows in the US that aren’t available in Canada, so choosing a US-based server will give you new and different content to choose from.

Alternatively, if you’re in the mood to explore a bunch of new K-dramas, you could always use a VPN server in South Korea to get access to more Korean content than anywhere else. With a NordVPN, you’ll find that you have even more content options than you’d ever considered!

NordVPN world map

How Much Does NordVPN Cost?

NordVPN is one of the top VPN services in the world thanks to its 1,700+ servers in 118 countries, and features like military-grade security, automatic sign-in, a kill-switch, and more. It also conveniently offers several different subscription packages to suit each person’s individual needs.

You can choose to subscribe for 1 month, 1 year, or 2 years, and regardless of the length of your subscription, you can choose between 4 package levels. Depending on which package and length of time you choose, the prices range from $4.39/month to $21.29/month.

However, Milesopedia readers can currently enjoy a special offer on the Basic package, as follows:

  • 2 years + 3 months free for a one-time payment of $107.73 CAD (equivalent to $3.99 CAD per month) + tax
  • Up to 10 devices secured at once
  • Includes 30-day satisfaction guarantee
NordVPN pricing EN

Bottom Line

In my experience, using NordVPN to access to my favourite shows while living and travelling abroad has been easy, seamless, and incredibly helpful.

With NordVPN, you’ll be able to keep up with the same shows as your friends back home, watch all the new releases, and have access to your favourite relaxing reruns from anywhere in the world! Plus, you can rest assured that your data is secure when you access important information like banking, credit cards, and travel documents.

FAQs

Is NordVPN trustworthy?

Yes, NordVPN is very trustworthy. NordVPN is one of the more secure and most reliable VPN services on the market, and they’ve had over a decade of experience providing top-notch data protection for travellers and other internet users.

Can I use NordVPN on multiple devices?

Yes, you can use NordVPN on up to 10 devices connect via a single account at the same time; however, there are conditions to this if you’re going to choose the exact same server for multiple devices. If you choose different servers, there shouldn’t be an issue.

You can read more about connecting multiple devices through a single NordVPN account on the NordVPN website.

Does NordVPN slow my internet connection?

Thanks to NordVPN’s lightning-fast servers, there should be minimal impact on your connection speed. To maintain an optimal connection for streaming and browsing, choose a server close to your location.

Can I get a refund if I'm not happy with NordVPN?

Yes. NordVPN offers an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee. Simply contact customer service for a full refund.

Come to discuss that topic in our Facebook Group!
Erin Partridge
Erin Partridge
Erin Partridge enjoys travelling slowly and taking her time to get to know each new place. 
She’s had the opportunity to live in Canada and South Korea, with shorter stints in Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, Spain, and more.
All posts by Erin Partridge
Products

Receive our newsletter every week!

Savings are here (if you don’t see the sign-up form, please click here):

Milesopedia