I guess opinions are varied depending on the application but when traveling I always use OpenVPN to tunnel into my home router running DD-WRT before accessing the internet. I have standard AT&T DSL service at home and use a $30 Buffalo router as the VPN server. It does solve several issues:
1. Security - Nothing's ever perfect but I feel much safer against "man-in-the-middle" monitoring.
2. Convenience - I hate being redirected to country-specific sites (i.e., google.com.au when typing google.com). You also don't have to work around hotel ISPs which block ports (particularly SMTP).
3. Easy access to your home LAN.
Yes it is a bit slower running encrypted but on a recent trip to Japan I VPNed home and used MagicJack to access a US dialtone and used my EnjoyPrepaid account to call New Zealand. Even with the VPN the double VoIP hop sounded great.