are we really secure when at a public hotspot?

[big dawg]

My neighbor says that even when you are connected to a VPN while in a public WiFi hotspot, that your signal from your laptop or smartphone is still having to send unencrypted and
unprotected info to the public WiFi's router and then, and only then, is the signal from your laptop or smartphone encrypted when the VPN takes the signal. As a result, he says that I am really never protected locally (at the hotspot) but I am once the info is in the tunnel, as far as the internet is concerned.
Is he right???

[maikcat]

that your signal from your laptop or smartphone is still having to send unencrypted and
unprotected info to the public WiFi's router and then,

when using openvpn the vpn endpoints are you and the server,
that means traffic going via vpn tunnel when it leaves your laptop is already encrypted.

Michael.

[big dawg]

Thanks for the info