I was sitting on a tiny, wrought-iron balcony in Mexico City late last year, clutching a lukewarm hibiscus tea and trying to load the University Challenge final. It was well past midnight. Inside the flat, my partner was on a high-stakes video call with a client in Sydney that absolutely could not drop. Every time I tried to refresh the BBC iPlayer stream, I could hear the sharp, impatient "Are we back?" shouted from the bedroom as the wifi buckled under the weight of my VPN and his presentation. This is the 'nomad latency trap'—the moment you realize your internet connection is a zero-sum game.
Before we go any further, just a quick heads-up: This site uses affiliate links. If you sign up for a VPN through these links, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend services like Private Internet Access that I have actually paid for and used while bouncing between Airbnbs. You can read my full transparency policy here, but essentially, if it didn't work in a Porto hotel at 2am, I'm not telling you it's great.
The Latency Trap and the PIA Solution
Most people talk about VPNs in terms of 'speed,' but for those of us working remotely, latency (or 'ping') is the real villain. It’s the delay between you clicking 'mute' and the software actually silencing you. When you’re on a shared hotel connection in Lisbon, adding a VPN can double that delay, making you that person in the meeting who constantly talks over everyone else. I switched to Private Internet Access (PIA) mid-February because I’d heard it was the 'tinkerer’s VPN'—the one that lets you shave off every millisecond of lag.
PIA is famous for its privacy-first engineering, but for me, the draw was the sheer level of control. Most VPNs are a 'big green button' affair. PIA lets you get under the hood. In our Lisbon Airbnb, the wifi was notoriously flaky. I spent ages messing with the WireGuard protocol settings, trying to find the sweet spot where my partner’s video calls stayed crisp while I kept my background tasks running. If you've ever wondered is ExpressVPN good for Microsoft Teams calls while traveling abroad, you know that latency is the make-or-break factor for professional work.
Testing the Limits in Lisbon and Beyond
After about six weeks of using PIA as my daily driver, I started to appreciate the little things. For one, PIA has servers in all 50 US states. This sounds like a niche stat, but when you’re trying to access a very specific US-based banking site that geofences anything outside of the Tri-State area, having a server in New Jersey is a godsend. However, the customizability is a double-edged sword. I once spent nearly an hour toggling MTU settings in the PIA app to fix a connection drop, only to realize I hadn't actually turned the wifi back on after a laptop restart. My partner’s look of silent judgment was enough to make me want to hide behind a second firewall.
The real 'inner truth' of PIA is that it’s built for people who don't mind a bit of friction in exchange for performance. The app can feel a bit busy. Compared to the polished, 'it just works' vibe of ExpressVPN, PIA feels like a dashboard from a flight simulator. If you’re a nomad with a complex setup—maybe you’re the type mentioned in the best VPN for travelers with multiple laptops and streaming sticks guide—you’ll love the granular control. If you just want to watch Netflix without thinking, it might feel like overkill.
The iPlayer Heartbreak in Bangkok
One humid evening in Bangkok, the limitations of a privacy-first VPN hit home. I was lying on the bed, the specific hum of the air conditioning unit vibrating through the wall, waiting for a server to handshake so I could catch up on the Christmas special. I had a low-latency connection, the ping was beautiful, but then it happened: the dreaded 'content not available' error. iPlayer had flagged the IP. This is the trade-off. PIA is court-tested for privacy and uses incredible encryption, but streaming services like the BBC are constantly playing cat-and-mouse with their data center IP ranges.
I found myself thinking that if I couldn't get this connection to work for the special, I might actually have to talk to my partner about our tax residency instead of just pretending we’re on a permanent holiday. It’s moments like those where I’m glad I have a backup. While PIA is brilliant for work, I often keep a CyberGhost VPN subscription active because of their 45-day money-back guarantee and their dedicated streaming servers which tend to be more resilient against the BBC’s ban-hammer. You can see why some nomads prefer that specialized approach in this look at why CyberGhost is the best VPN for streaming overseas on Firestick.
The Multi-Hop Tradeoff
One thing I experimented with in Lisbon was PIA’s multi-hop routing. Essentially, it sends your traffic through two servers instead of one. This is great for obfuscation if you’re on a really restrictive network, but it’s the enemy of low latency. It’s like trying to drive across London but deciding to go via Birmingham just to be sure no one is following you. You’ll get there eventually, and you’ll be very safe, but you’re going to be late for dinner. For digital nomads needing low latency for calls, I’d generally suggest sticking to a single-hop WireGuard connection unless you’re in a country with very aggressive censorship.
I also noticed that while PIA is great for keeping my ping low, it doesn't always handle the 'reconnect' as gracefully as ExpressVPN when you’re switching from hotel wifi to a phone hotspot. ExpressVPN has a limit of 8 simultaneous device connections, which is usually enough for me, but PIA allows for a lot more flexibility on the pricing side, especially if you’re committing to a multi-year plan to keep costs down while traveling.
Is Private Internet Access Right for You?
If you are the person who notices the exact moment an iPlayer stream buffers from 1080p to 720p, or if you lose your mind when your cursor lags during a Figma session, PIA is worth the look. It’s the VPN I use when I’m doing 'serious' work. But for the 2am 'I just want to see who won University Challenge' moments, it can sometimes be a bit of a struggle. I’ve had to swap servers three or four times to find one that the BBC hasn't blacklisted yet. For a smoother streaming experience, I often point friends toward why ExpressVPN is the best VPN for BBC iPlayer, even if it costs a few extra pounds a month.
In the end, I still keep my PIA subscription active. It’s reliable, it’s cheap on the long-term plans, and the latency performance on US and UK servers is hard to beat when you get the settings right. Just be prepared to do a little bit of troubleshooting now and then. If you’re ready to take control of your connection and don't mind the occasional captcha, it’s a solid choice for the nomadic lifestyle.
Before you commit, take a look at how it stacks up against the other heavy hitters I’ve been using this year: