🇨🇿
Brno
Czech Republic
Affordable Czech student capital with a strong community.
🇪🇸
Madrid
Spain
Spain's capital — museums, parks and endless nights.
Estimated monthly student budget
🇨🇿 Brno
€650–950 / month
Estimated monthly student budget
🇪🇸 Madrid
€1,050–1,400 / month
Best for
🇨🇿 Brno
- Students with a tight budget
- Those who want a strong student community
- People who enjoy travelling around Central Europe
Best for
🇪🇸 Madrid
- Students looking for a large international city
- Those who want to travel frequently around Europe
- People interested in academic and professional opportunities
Category profile
How each city tends to feel across the things students care about — different, not better or worse.
🇨🇿 Brno
🇪🇸 Madrid
Very Affordable
Cost of Living
Expensive
High
Nightlife
Very High
Fair
Weather
Very Good
Excellent
Travel Opportunities
Excellent
Outstanding
Student Life
Very Active
Comfortable
Housing
Tight
Strong
University Reputation
Top-Tier
Student insights
🇨🇿 Brno
- Very low cost of living
- Strong, tightly-knit Erasmus community
- Multiple universities concentrated in one city
Student insights
🇪🇸 Madrid
- Exceptional nightlife
- Outstanding national and international connections
- Highly prestigious universities
Student voice — 🇨🇿 Brno
“Brno is Prague's chill little sibling.”
Student voice — 🇪🇸 Madrid
“Madrid is a city that never sleeps.”
🇨🇿 Brno
Pros
- Very low cost of living
- Strong, tightly-knit Erasmus community
- Multiple universities concentrated in one city
- Great Central European travel base
- Friendly, welcoming atmosphere
Cons
- Cold winters
- Smaller than Prague — fewer flights and tourists
- Czech language barrier outside university
- Less famous globally as an Erasmus destination
- Limited beach or Mediterranean lifestyle
🇪🇸 Madrid
Pros
- Exceptional nightlife
- Outstanding national and international connections
- Highly prestigious universities
- Wide cultural and leisure offer
- Great networking and career opportunities
Cons
- Very expensive rent
- High cost of living by Spanish standards
- Large, sometimes overwhelming city
- Longer daily commutes than in mid-sized cities
- Less sense of student community than in more compact destinations
Have you studied in one of these cities?
Share your experience and help future students make better Erasmus decisions.