🇭🇺
Budapest
Hungary
Thermal baths, ruin bars and the Danube at sunset.
🇪🇸
Madrid
Spain
Spain's capital — museums, parks and endless nights.
Estimated monthly student budget
🇭🇺 Budapest
€800–1,050 / month
Estimated monthly student budget
🇪🇸 Madrid
€1,050–1,400 / month
Best for
🇭🇺 Budapest
- Students with a tight or mid-range budget
- Those looking for a very active social life
- People who want to travel frequently around 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.
🇭🇺 Budapest
🇪🇸 Madrid
Very Affordable
Cost of Living
Expensive
Very High
Nightlife
Very High
Fair
Weather
Very Good
Excellent
Travel Opportunities
Excellent
Outstanding
Student Life
Very Active
Plentiful
Housing
Tight
Well-Regarded
University Reputation
Top-Tier
Student insights
🇭🇺 Budapest
- Excellent value for money
- One of the best nightlife scenes in Europe
- Large Erasmus community
Student insights
🇪🇸 Madrid
- Exceptional nightlife
- Outstanding national and international connections
- Highly prestigious universities
Student voice — 🇭🇺 Budapest
“Budapest is a brilliant city for Erasmus.”
Student voice — 🇪🇸 Madrid
“Madrid is a city that never sleeps.”
🇭🇺 Budapest
Pros
- Excellent value for money
- One of the best nightlife scenes in Europe
- Large Erasmus community
- Ideal location for travelling
- Relatively accessible accommodation
Cons
- Long, cold winters
- University prestige lower than major Western capitals
- Local language difficult for many students
- Fewer international professional opportunities
- Some infrastructure can feel less modern than Western Europe
🇪🇸 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.