Best headphones for travel 2024: ideal headphones for long journeys

If you’re not travelling with a pair of the best headphones when travelling, you’re not doing it right. You need comfort and you need to block out distracting sounds most of the time so you can focus on your work and your personal time.

Based on hours of testing in all kinds of environments, these are the best travel headphones available to buy right now. We've covered a wide variety in terms of price and design – and, of course, included many of the best noise-cancelling headphones as it's an integral feature for those travelling.

It's time to elevate your listening experience, whether you're heading down the road to the shops or visiting a friend on the other side of the world by plane. If you're specifically looking for the best earbuds rather than over-ears, then be sure to check out that best-of list.

It's now the middle of the festive season, which might well mean that some of the travel headphones below have welcome deals. For those and our superb gift guides, check out the T3 Christmas hub, where our seasonal content will all gather.

T3's Top Picks

The best travel headphones in 2024

Best travel headphones for noise-cancelling

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are perfect for travellers, with the great carry case and folding design, as well as the superior active noise cancelling that you get. You can disappear into your own little audio world with this pair of cans.

As you would expect from Bose, the audio quality is top notch, and you also get a fantastic Immersive Audio (spatial audio) feature to further enhance your sound. You're guaranteed a superb listen whether you're on the go or staying at home.

As we said in our Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones review: "All hail the noise-cancelling king! If you're looking for incredible travel headphones then you can do no better." Give your ears a real treat with the best travel headphones for ANC.

Best travel headphones for comfort

You want to be comfortable on the go, and the Sonos Ace offer superior comfort, thanks to the memory foam and snug fit. In our Sonos Ace review, tech editor Mike Lowe called them the most comfortable pair of headphones he's ever worn.

The Sonos Ace headphones are the first pair we've seen launched by Sonos, and while it's quite a surprise that they don't offer full integration with existing Sonos Wi-Fi speaker systems, there's an awful lot to like about what's on offer here.

It's not just that they're super comfy though – the Sonos Ace pump out a fantastic level of audio quality, feature some really well thought out design choices, and bring with them a very respectable amount of battery life between recharges as well.

Best budget travel headphones

The second-gen Nothing earbuds, the Ear (2), knocked the T3 team's socks off (well, ears off really). Our Nothing Ear (2) review describes these as "everything you need and nothing you don't", and they're a great pick for something more affordable.

We know that Nothing tries to be as fashionable and as innovative as possible, with its phones as well as its earbuds, and admittedly the design might not be to everyone's tastes – but their compact size makes them perfect for going travelling.

It's hard to find any faults with these affordable ANC in-ears, unless you don't particularly enjoy the design, and you get audio quality that's better than you might expect for the price. You even get in-ear access to ChatGPT, via your phone.

Best noise-cancelling in-ear travel headphones

If you want stellar active noise cancellation (ANC) as well as a compact form factor for your travels, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds are just about the best pick: expensive, sure, but excellent at blocking out all outside noise from your ears.

As we put it in our Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds review, "if you're in the market for one of the best-sounding pairs of earbuds, these sit in scarce company". The accompanying app is really well done too, adding to the appeal of the headphones.

It's hard to find anything to complain about with the build quality, the design, and the comfort of these wireless earbuds either. While we've highlighted the ANC in particular here, these are earbuds that score highly in every category as well.

Best travel headphones all-rounder

Sony's WH-1000XM5 come with a number of useful upgrades over the XM4 that we think are perfect for travellers: market-leading noise cancelling, improved Bluetooth connectivity, and USC-PD (power delivery) for faster charging while on the go.

What's more, the active noise cancelling is adaptive relative to your circumstances. The headphones will learn (or can be told) about your most commonly visited locations, and can (if you wish) adapt itself to suit – not a bad little audio trick.

While this pair of headphones isn't cheap, in our Sony WH-1000XM5 review we talked about sound that's "superb", "confident", "expansive", and "balanced", and with the decent battery life too, they're a great pick for the best travel headphones.

Best luxury travel headphones

Our luxury travel headphones pick are the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e: they're not the cheapest out there, but the audio quality is undeniable. You get superb dynamics and details from this pair, and a prestige sound to match this prestige brand name.

The build quality and the materials used here are top-notch too, at the expense of a little extra weight that we don't think most people will mind. There are easy-to-use on-board controls, as well as the option of a wired connection if you need it.

Add in the 30 hours of battery life between charges, and they're fantastic for your travels. As we said in our Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e review, these headphones are a "marvellous ensemble of sound quality, luxurious build and sublime comfort".

Best travel headphones for Apple users

The AirPods Pro 2 have been out a while now (and were just re-released with new USB-C port for charging), but the noise cancelling earbuds are still some of the best headphones for Apple devices (and they'll work with other gadgets too).

Not only do they have handy automatic pairing and switching ideal for those embedded in the Apple ecosystem, but they’ve also got wireless charging functionality, as well as handy IPX4 water resistance for the great outdoors.

The audio still massively impresses, and decent battery life as well. We described them as a "big win" for Apple in our Apple AirPods Pro 2 review, which may be part of the reason they haven't been replaced yet – and they're ideal for travel.

Best in-ear travel headphones all-rounder

Sony's top-end wireless earbuds are, everything considered, the best all-round earbuds for travel. They're a master of all trades, jack of none: slightly better sound and better battery life can be found elsewhere, but this is a winning combination.

As you might expect given the premium quality, they're not the cheapest you've going to come across – but they still give you a whole lot of bang for your buck, and now have multi-point Bluetooth for simultaneous connections to multiple devices.

As we put it in our full Sony WH-1000XM4 review, "there's nothing better in the world of in-ear headphones right now". They're superbly stylish as well as impressing in terms of their audio fidelity, and we also like how they can handle audio calls.

Best travel headphones for bass

Sometimes when you're on the road (or in the air, or on rails), you just want to hear that deep, deep bass – and for that, the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless are perfect. And they play other sound frequencies very well indeed, by the way.

As we put it in our Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless review: "they sound fantastic", "the battery lasts for ages", and have a "winning formula" overall. We also like the stylish look of these cans, which are comfortable to wear for extended periods.

These aren't the newest headphones on the market any more, which means you can get them at a very competitive price too. Adding to their credentials as travel headphones, they come with an attractive carry case for stashing them away.

How we test the best travel headphones

At T3 how we test is important. We spend a lot of time reviewing the latest headphones, so when it comes to recommending which are the best headphones for travel to buy, you can be safe in the knowledge that we'll recommend the best options for you personally.

We'll usually spend a week or longer testing the latest headphones. We try out the very latest features to see if they work and if they're useful. This might be a noise cancelling feature, a new app function, or a voice assistant. We test everything in-depth, with audio experts reviewing each pair thoroughly.

All of these new features also get tested alongside everything a pair of headphones should be classically good at, such as sound quality, noise cancelling ability, how long the battery lasts, and how comfortable they are to wear for long periods of time. Once the initial review period is complete we'll publish a full review, give the headphones a star rating.