If you care about cancelling out the noise, you wouldn't mind carrying a bulky pice of headphones, beacuse  noise cancelling headphones tend to be bulky.

“Noise isolating” vs “noise cancelling”: "Noise isolating" is as simple as putting your fingers in your ear. "Noise cancelling" is producing 'sound' that puts out sounds from outside getting in.

That's also more or less the difference between in-ear and over-the-year headphones.

The best in-ear noise-cancelling headphone: Bose QuietComfort 20 (Bose makes the best noise reducing headphones, pricey)

The best affordable in-ear noise-cancelling headphone: Monoprice 10799 Noise Cancelling Earphones (not as good as Bose headphones)