Abroad for the holidays? Make sure you don't miss out on your favorite shows by using a VPN

With the holiday season here, it’s the perfect time to catch up on your favorite TV – whether that’s festive classics or the latest binge-worthy series. But if you’re heading abroad for the holidays, geo-blocking can prevent you from accessing the movies and shows you normally watch at home. In that case, a VPN (virtual private network) can be the perfect companion.

A VPN hides your public IP address and assigns you a new one. Since your IP address is the primary clue streaming services like Netflix use to determine your physical location, the best VPNs help you appear as though you’re browsing from a different country, allowing you to sidestep geo-restrictions and access your favorite content no matter where you are.

In this article, we’ll show you how to watch content from overseas using a VPN, the key factors to consider when choosing a streaming VPN, and reveal which service we recommend as the #1 option for streaming. Read on.

How to watch content from overseas using a VPN

Using a VPN to access content from a different country is pretty straightforward. Once you’ve signed up for a quality VPN – based on our testing, NordVPN is the best VPN for streaming – just follow the steps below and you’ll be streaming your favorite shows abroad in no time.

1. Sign in to your streaming account. We recommend signing into your streaming site of choice before connecting to the VPN, as this has proven to be the most seamless experience in our testing. Once you’re signed in, close the tab.
2. Launch your chosen VPN.
3. Select the server you want to use. Pick a server from the country you want to access content from. If you run into any issues accessing streaming content, try a few different servers in your chosen location. If the problem persists, consider contacting your VPN provider for assistance.
4. With your VPN turned on, log in to your streaming site again, and you should now be able to see titles that were previously inaccessible in your region.

You should note, however, that using a VPN to access content that’s geo-blocked due to licensing or copyright reasons may violate your chosen platforms' terms of service.

For example, broadcasting rights for a particular movie may belong to Netflix in one country, but to Prime Video in another.

Using a VPN to sidestep such licensing restrictions may violate a streaming service’s terms of service, and if you’re caught doing so, your account could be terminated. With this being said, we've never actually heard of this happening.

How to pick a streaming VPN

When shopping for a VPN to access content from abroad, first consider the number of servers and server locations it offers. Needless to say, it should have plenty of servers – ideally across multiple cities in the country you want to stream from.

Given that the best VPN services already offer extensive global server coverage, we recommend sticking to one of these providers, as you never know which country might release the next blockbuster hit you’ll want to watch right away.

Secondly, simply having servers in a country isn’t enough. You need to ensure the VPN can actually unblock the streaming services you want to use. In our testing, all the top VPNs performed exceptionally well, unblocking everything we threw at them – from major platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+ to regional libraries such as 9Now and 10Play.

Finally, the VPN you choose must offer fast connection speeds. This is essential for streaming even 4K content without buffering and ensuring a smooth viewing experience.

Our top picks, like NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN, are more than fast enough for this purpose (you only need 25 Mbps to stream 4K videos) and can easily max out a typical home internet connection.

What is the best VPN for streaming?

Based on our testing, NordVPN is the best VPN for streaming. It offers an excellent server spread, with over 8,000 servers across 164 locations in 126 countries. This means that no matter where you are and where you want to watch content from, you’ll always find a fast server nearby.

We were able to access a wide range of global and regional streaming platforms with NordVPN without any issues. This included Netflix libraries in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan, as well as Disney+, Prime Video, ITVX, Channel 4, and more.

Last but not least, NordVPN is also one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested, delivering peak speeds of over 1,200 Mbps on a 10 Gbps line. So, you don’t have to worry about it slowing you down during your binge-watching sessions. There's even a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try NordVPN out risk-free.