🇩🇰
Copenhagen
Denmark
Scandinavian design, bikes and one of Europe's best quality of life.
🇪🇸
Madrid
Spain
Spain's capital — museums, parks and endless nights.
Estimated monthly student budget
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
€1,400–1,800 / month
Estimated monthly student budget
🇪🇸 Madrid
€1,050–1,400 / month
Best for
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
- Students who value high quality of life
- Those interested in design and sustainability
- People looking for top-tier universities
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.
Very Expensive
Cost of Living
Expensive
High
Nightlife
Very High
Fair
Weather
Very Good
High
Travel Opportunities
Excellent
Very Active
Student Life
Very Active
Very Tight
Housing
Tight
Top-Tier
University Reputation
Top-Tier
Student insights
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
- Excellent quality of life
- World-class universities
- Very bike-friendly and well-organised
Student insights
🇪🇸 Madrid
- Exceptional nightlife
- Outstanding national and international connections
- Highly prestigious universities
Student voice — 🇩🇰 Copenhagen
“Best quality of life I've ever experienced.”
Student voice — 🇪🇸 Madrid
“Madrid is a city that never sleeps.”
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
Pros
- Excellent quality of life
- World-class universities
- Very bike-friendly and well-organised
- Strong design and sustainability culture
- English universally spoken
Cons
- Very high cost of living
- Extremely competitive housing market
- Long, dark winters
- Locals can feel reserved
- Less spontaneous nightlife than southern 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.