Is public Wi-Fi safe with a VPN?
With a VPN, public Wi-Fi is about as safe as your connection at home. All your traffic is encrypted, so snoopers on the network, and even a malicious hotspot operator, get nothing useful.
Public Wi-Fi in cafes, hotels, and airports is notorious because you share the network with strangers and have no idea who runs it. The classic risks are eavesdropping on unencrypted traffic and rogue hotspots posing as the venue's real network.
A VPN removes most of that risk. The encrypted tunnel is established before your traffic crosses the network, so even on a fully compromised hotspot the contents stay unreadable. Online banking and logging into email are reasonable again, though banking apps add their own encryption layer anyway.
Two practical tips: enable the kill switch in your VPN app, so your connection is blocked if the VPN unexpectedly drops, and turn on automatic protection on unknown networks, which most apps offer. After that you never have to think about it again.