When looking for the best travel headphones, we're slightly adjusting our priorities compared to looking for more general headphones. We're looking for portability, battery life and, of course, active noise cancellation (ANC) more than we might otherwise. For those looking for the best airplane headphones, the option of a wired connection becomes crucial too, for those in-flight movies.
This list of the best travel headphones overlaps heavily with the best noise-cancelling headphones, but focusing more on their battery life, whether they have a folding lightweight design, and making sure they have a 3.5mm jack. Over-ear headphones are better at ANC than wireless earbuds, and wireless buds don't have wired connections, s headphones are our first pick – but best noise-cancelling earbuds have a huge portability advantage, so we've included those too (and one of them actually can handle a wired connection).
Our reviewers have tested all of these travel headphones on the exact kinds of transport we're talking about – our recommendations are based on real-world use for flights, trains, buses and even the occasional boat.
The quick list
Want a simple way to find the travel headphones with the features and price range you want? Use our quick list below – you can click to see a longer write-up of each product for more in-depth information.
The best travel headphones for most people
These headphones offer strong noise cancellation, great sound, good battery life, wired or wireless use, and a comfortable fit in a lightweight folding design. Ideal for travel at a superb price.
The best cheaper travel headphones
These headphones can't cut out as much noise as higher-end models, but they're excellent for the price, and come with some useful smart features. They're light, and work wired or wireless.
The best premium travel headphones
The best noise cancellation we've used to date, elite sound quality, spatial audio, and a super-comfortable design that folds up. They're expensive, though, and the battery life is short.
The best travel headphones for battery life
You get glorious sound quality and solid noise-stopping here, with some super-smart features, and wired or wireless use. Oh, and 60 hours of battery life, which crushes everything else here.
The best noise-cancelling earbuds
These offer essentially the best noise cancellation of earbuds, with a solid and secure fit. Great sound quality, smart features, and very good value for premium-level earbuds.
The best earbuds for iPhone and iPad
With noise-blocking powers to challenge the Bose, amazing Spatial Audio for watching movies on iPhone or iPad, and glorious audio quality, these are ideal for Apple fans.
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The best mid-priced earbuds for noise cancellation
Half the price of Bose headphones or AirPods, and more premium than the Earfun, these hit a perfect balance. You get astounding audio quality, great ANC, and good battery life.
The cheap earbuds with good noise cancellation
For this price, no other buds delivers better noise cancellation. And as an added bonus, they offer a long battery life of 7 hours with ANC on. They're very future-proof for features, too.
The best wireless earbuds for in-flight movie systems
Exquisite sound, decent ANC, weak battery life – but you can connect their case to a 3.5mm jack, and it beams sound to the buds. They're uniquely good for flights, but they'll cost you.
I've been reviewing tech for 14 years, and for pretty much all that time I've been testing headphones and speakers. As one of TechRadar's most frequent travellers, I've tested a ton of headphones and earbuds on flights and train rides, and I've used experience to choose the headphones that best fit the particular priorities of people flying or taking other long journeys.
Recent updates
April 11, 2024
Added the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones based on our review.
The best travel headphones 2024
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The best travel headphones overall
The Sony WH-1000 range has gone from strength to noise-cancelling strength with each iteration. While the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones are now available, the 2020 XM4s still offer an incredible combination of brilliant ANC and enjoyably balanced audio quality from a lightweight set of folding cans. You could shell out the extra for the latest model but these are a significantly better buy for being slightly older.
For travel especially, the noise cancelling here is exceptional. You’ll only realize just how loud that plane engine hum actually is when you take these off. This is thanks to Sony’s proprietary processor, which is constantly sampling the world around you and adjusting the noise cancellation accordingly. And not only will intrusive noises disappear but the pleather cups are cosy and comfortable even for long haul journeys, making the Sony WH-1000XM4s our top pick for the very best travel headphones, even though the newer Sony WH-1000XM5 is available – that model lacks the folding design, and is more expensive without being a big leap better.
Read our full Sony WH-1000XM4 review
The best cheaper travel headphones
Sony's more affordable counterpart to its flagship 'XM' model can be found for under $150/£100, but delivers very impressive audio quality regardless, especially when it comes to detail and overall balance. Instruments are crisp, treble and bass both get to shine in their own way, and the mid-range is warm and full.
The noise cancellation really helps clamp down on the volume of outside sounds so that you can hear dialog in a movie on a plane, in our experience, though it does leak in noticeably more sound overall than the higher-end options here (both in terms of over-ear headphones and earbuds), so we had to significantly turn up the volume on a quiet, speech-heavy movie on a plane compared to those options. But it's as good as anything else available for the price.
They're very lightweight and are generally comfortable to use for long periods, which means we can forgive them for not folding. They don't feel as premium as other options here, but again, that's fine. The wired option is very welcome for plane use, and the quoted 35-hour battery life is essentially on the money in our experience.
Read our full Sony WH-CH720N review
The best travel headphones for elite noise cancellation
These are, perhaps, the ultimate travel companion – with just one flaw that might put you off. They check so many boxes, with their best-in-class active noise cancellation at the center of the success. We found in our testing that nothing else stops the hubbub of a city or traffic around you so effectively – though we did find that they reacted oddly to extremely loud sounds (sitting by a bus engine on a hill, and during plane take-off) with some very robotic output. But we were happy to forgive these moments, since they're so good the rest of the time.
And on top of that, you get truly exceptional audio quality that's more exciting, precise and detailed than anything else in this list. They're capable of deep, velvety bass and delicate, elevated treble, with plenty of expression and clarity through the mid-range. And on top of this, they have a spatial audio mode that does a good job of feeling like the sound isn't being pumped right into your ears, from any source, which can help flights to feel less claustrophobic.
And they do all this in a fairly light design that folds up for travel, so they're great for your carry-on (and they come with a hard cases). The only real downside? The 24-hour battery life is lower than other over-ear headphones here, though it's still enough to make it through the vast majority of flights, of course. Just remember to charge when you land. All of this comes at a high price compared to the other headphones here, though we think it's well worthwhile if you can stretch to it. (If not, the non-Ultra Bose QuietComfort Headphones offer very nearly as good ANC for cheaper, and are still light and foldable).
Read our full Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones review
The best travel headphones for huge battery life
The Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless cans were TechRadar’s favorite headphones of 2022, the year they launched, and they're seriously impressive headphones that deliver on every level.
You see, before we even get onto the excellent audio and brilliant ANC, let’s just take a moment to celebrate the 60-hour battery life. Yes, 60 hours, even with ANC and normal volume levels. That’s enough for five transatlantic flights without even having to think about going anywhere near a USB-C port. Oh, and if you do somehow run out of juice, there’s a 3.5mm jack for just that or plugging into a plane entertainment system.
While that battery life would be enough for us, Sennheiser has also managed to cram in wonderfully dynamic audio. No matter the music genre, the Momentum 4 Wireless deliver an ultra detailed and crisp aural performance. There’s a real depth here that is rare even in over-ear cans. Add in strong active noise cancellation (with genius adaptive features you can customize through the app) and you’ll very quickly forgive the slightly basic looks and mildly chunkier weight of these travel cans.
Read our full Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless review
The best noise cancelling earbuds for travel
While some earbuds come with a selection of silicone tips to make sure you can personalize the fit of your buds, the new Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II go one better and customize audio specifically for your ear canals. Thanks to what Bose calls CustomTune, both ANC and audio in these buds are personalized to best suit your ears. And going by the clear and extra-detailed sound here, we can say it’s doing something right. Combined with Bose’s best-in-class noise cancellation, these buds sing with a vibrant soundstage even over the whirr of jet engines.
The design has been overhauled from the previous generation, with a significantly more comfortable fit that’s ideal for long listening sessions. They aren’t the smallest buds, but they are lighter than the original Bose QC Earbuds, and the lozenges don’t look nearly as bulky in your ears. The downsides here are that there’s no hi-res audio support, no spatial audio, no multi-point pairing, and the chunky design may not suit everyone, though they fit very securely.
And while the active noise cancellation is effectively the best you can get for earbuds (the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are arguably better, but not much better, and they're notably more expensive, though they do also bring spatial audio support), the high-end over-ear stuff is even more effective. But then, they don't slip in your pocket wherever you go, like these do.
Read our full Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 review
The best ANC earbuds for iPhone and iPad
The AirPods Pro 2 were huge leap forward for the AirPods line, delivering not just a super-convenient experience for Apple users, but audio quality and noise cancellation that's up there with the best in the class. There’s an expansive soundscape that we’ve just not heard on previous AirPods, with incredibly layered audio. Vocals, bass, and even individual instruments all get their chance to shine.
Add in excellent ANC that's only a hair behind the Bose at #5 on this list, plus a lighter weight and smaller case than almost all similar rivals, and Apple's Find My functionality in case you leave them somewhere, and the AirPods Pro 2 are the perfect travel companions.
The final cherry on the icing for traveling is Spatial Audio, however. Use them with an iPhone or iPad to watch movies and they recreate the feeling of being in a movie theater surrounded by speakers, rather then feeling the sound is pumping right in your ears. It's nice to feel less confined when traveling, and nothing does that more effectively than these.
But this all really applies if you're deep into Apple tech; the functionality is very limited on Android. And note that the six hours of battery life per charge is very average – the Sony WF-C700N at #6 on the list offer 7.5 hours, by comparison.
Read our full Apple AirPods Pro 2 review
The best mid-priced earbuds for ANC
It's not many products that leads us to say that a pair of earbuds "just ripped our notions on what is achievable at this level to smithereens" in a review, but these did. If you want to spend less than $100/£100 on a pair of earbuds while getting the best possible sound and noise cancellation from them, read no further. Nothing beats these.
It's not just the energetic, accurate, detailed audio quality, but that the effective (and customizable) noise cancellation that makes it easy to hear. Yes, the Bose earbuds or over-ear headphones do it better, but you pay a ton more to get there.
Throw in support for Sony's 360 Reality Audio tech for positional sound, plus generally great app support, a super-light and secure fit, and long battery life from the buds, and you've got a winning package. That you only get one additional charge from the case is a bit of an issue for traveling, but not a dealbreaker. It's the same with the lack of auto-pause when you remove them, or hi-res support – again, we're not concerned for the price. We love them.
Read our full Sony WF-C700N review
Best super-cheap earbuds with good ANC
We called these "the best cheap noise-cancelling earbuds you can get" in our review, and that's the long and short of it. Do they block noise as well as the Bose, AirPods, or Sony earbuds also in this list? No – but they're way less expensive (and often discounted further), and they do it as well as anything else at the same kind of price.
And when you then factor in the fantastic nine-hour battery life, and that they're future-proofed with features such as Bluetooth 5.3 and LE Audio support, they're even more of a bargain. The sound is good for the price, with no obvious weaknesses, even it isn't as rich as more elite models – it's still fun and compelling to listen to.
The design is not very svelte, but we don't mind too much considering what's been packed in there. These are such good all-rounders, and the quality of the sound for the cost makes them our cheapest pick.
Read our full Earfun Air Pro 3 review
Best true wireless earbuds for in-flight movie systems
When it comes to sound quality, few earbuds can match these. We said "you're in for a sonic masterclass" in our review, and raved that dynamic elements are delivered with "more zeal and energy than we've heard from any set of true wireless earbuds to date". When it comes to audio quality, they're second to none.
That's sadly not true when it comes to the quality of the noise cancellation (which let's through far more low-frequency rumble than we expect from something so premium), and the battery life, which is the lowest of anything in this list.
But they have an ace up their sleeve. Unlike basically all other true wireless earbuds, these can be used wired. The case comes with a couple of cables (one USB-C to USB-C, one 3.5mm jack to USB-C), so that you can connect the case to an audio source such as an in-flight entertainment system. The sound is beamed from the case to the earbuds over aptX high-quality streaming.
All of the over-ear headphones we've featured in this list have a wired options, but none of the earbuds does. That's the nature of going true wireless. You get the best of both worlds here. Well, most of the best – if only the noise cancellation was better. They're also very large – those with small ears should give them a test before committing.
Read our full Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 review
How to choose the best travel headphones for you
When it comes to choosing the best travel headphones, all of the important decisions are fully subjective. This is about finding the best travel headphones for you and not anybody else, so there are a few things to consider.
The first one is an easy choice. Do you prefer over-ear cans or earbuds? We all have very different preferences, and there’s no right or wrong answer. Some people find in-ear buds invasive or worry about finding exactly the right fit. Thankfully if you’re fretting about the latter, most earbuds now come with a collection of silicone tips to ensure that the buds are snug enough for you not to worry about them tumbling out. Active noise cancelling depends on a good seal, so most ANC pairs have a good selection. Earbuds are also handy for travelling thanks to their compact cases that can slide into an inside pocket.
But if you’re happy to carry something a little bigger and want some added audio oomph, there are plenty of over-ear options explicitly designed to press the mute button on airports and crowded train carriages. Brands like Sony and Bose have long reigned over the travel crowd, purely for their ultra-comfortable over-ear fit, excellent noise cancellation and satisfying audio chops.
They also fit snugly even when you’re cosied into your neck pillow on the plane, which is incredibly satisfying as you drift off. You’ll also want to keep an eye out for over-ears that come with a 3.5mm cable in the case so you can plug into the airplane entertainment system without having to resort to the free foamy monstrosities so you can watch a movie.
True wireless earbuds won't have a cable option (mostly), so if you're taking them on a flight, make sure you've filled your tablet or phone with entertainment.
Once you’ve decided on a fit, it’s time to think about your budget. If you fly regularly or want to silence a noisy metro train daily, you might want to invest in a high-end pair of ANC cans. If you’re just heading onto one short flight and don’t want to spend as much as the ticket on a pair of headphones, plenty of ANC options are available that won’t break the bank. You’ll sacrifice some bells and whistles, but audio quality doesn’t always have to suffer.
Speaking of ANC, you'll want to consider just how much you want to block out the world around you. As we said above, the more you pay the better the ANC tends to be. But that isn't always the case, so be sure to read our first-hand reviews. All of the options in this guide have some level of ANC – we consider it essential for a pair of the best travel headphones – but we also have a guide dedicated to the best noise cancelling headphones and best noise cancelling earbuds specifically if wrapping yourself up in an immersive cocoon of sound is your number one priority.
Higher-end headphones also may come with a system to adjust the air pressure between the seal and your eardrum, which is obviously nice on airplanes, when the pressure changes. Sony's WH-1000XM4 at #1 on this list feature 'Atmospheric Pressure Optimizing' tech, for example, while AirPods Pro 2 at #7 on this list also feature a pressure-balancing system.
How we test the best travel headphones
When we review headphones with active noise cancellation, we always test them for travel as much as possible anyway, since that's usually the hardest test for their noise blocking powers! We listen to them in cities among traffic, on public transport including trains and buses, and we've tested most of these options on flights, to find the best headphones for airplanes.
For audio fidelity, we test headphones from a range of sources, but mainly the best music streaming services. Our tests range from very high-quality tracks on Tidal to the very basic quality of Spotify's app, plus we'll test podcasts, YouTube, movie streams and other common ways to listen.
We always test out the apps that most modern headphones have, to see how they can affect the experience (for better or worse), plus any features that are enabled by the apps, such as customizable noise cancellation, EQ settings, or spatial audio.
And we'll test the battery claims with actual use – and we'll use them for a long time to test the comfort, while we're at it.
We're comparing our verdicts in all these areas against other products at the same kind of price to arrive at our conclusion of not only whether something sounds good or blocks noise well, but whether it achieves good value while doing that.
Latest updates to the best travel headphones
April 11, 2024
Added the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones based on our review.
December 6, 2023
Checked rankings against recent product launches and added in a new lead image.
June 25, 2023
This guide launches for the first time! All entries were chosen by our team, based on our own reviews and opinions of the products.
