How to ensure data security when using public Wi-Fi in hotels?

Question

WiFi

Often have to travel and work on a laptop in hotels (abroad). Many hotels offer free Wi-Fi internet in the rooms. Usually there is authorization through a mini site (Wi-Fi is public, and then a window pops up on the hotel website where you enter the guest's last name and room number and get free access). Since everyone uses it, I suspect that they can easily intercept traffic from a laptop (and there they enter passwords on sites, connect via SSH / FTP, email, Internet banking, etc.).
Tell me how to ensure the security of data transfer during such work (so that passwords sent via Wi-Fi are not stolen)? What software should be used? (MacOS, Windows).

Answer 1

For myself, I decided this: I get a tunnel to the home server through OpenVPN, I already go to the Internet from it. On the laptop only the client. All traffic is already encrypted on the laptop, decrypted on the home server. The setup took an hour (together with the study of the manual).
As for protection - if you have a super-important info going through the channel, then I will say right away - they can break this method (actually like any other).

Answer 2

Use VPN services.