I’ve googled around and it seems Nord or Express VPN are reputable, and I’ve heard of windscribe too. However, I just wanted to double check here, especially since a lot of those sites in the search results seem geared as ads

What do you need one for? You can run your own if you want access to your home. You can use wireguard with tunsafe (winshit client) which has free 10gbps connections currently on their page.

I’ll be in a country that blocks sites I want access to (eg netflix)

Netflix is pretty good at blocking vpn. So make sure the service offers dedicated/personal ips. And be floated for them to be blocked soon, so don’t lock into a long commitment.