🇩🇰
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.
🇩🇰 Copenhagen
🇪🇸 Madrid
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.