Best European Cities for Erasmus Students Who Love Nightlife
The best experience for many future graduates
In recent years, more than 1.4 million people have been part of an Erasmus experience, and that is why choosing the best European city for Erasmus students is such an important decision. Most students do not choose a city only because of the academic options offered by their university. Usually, they also want the city to have an excellent student atmosphere, to feel safe and to offer nights full of fun.
Choosing a city for Erasmus only because of its nightlife is like choosing a university because you like how beautiful the classrooms are. Nightlife is not everything, but it will definitely become one of the things you remember from your Erasmus experience.
If you are looking for a city that offers a great student experience, good professors, good universities and an ideal nightlife atmosphere, we have put together a list with some of the best european cities for erasmus.
In this ranking of European cities where you can study on Erasmus and have fun at the same time, we have not included cities with extremely high nightclub entrance prices or cities that can be particularly dangerous at night. We also want to show you other types of nightlife activities that students can enjoy during their Erasmus experience.
At the end of the day, when your studies are over and you start working, some of the things that will stay with you for the rest of your life are the memories you created during those nights out and the friends you made during your Erasmus.
Instead, we have looked at the best European cities for Erasmus students who love nightlife by asking a different question:
What is each city like when you actually have to live there for an entire semester?
The Erasmus Nightlife Test
Before comparing the cities, it helps to understand what makes an Erasmus nightlife destination genuinely good.
A city can be internationally famous for partying and still be a poor match for the way you want to spend your exchange.
These are the tests that matter more than one famous venue.
The Monday Test
Going out on a Saturday or Friday is relatively easy because everything will be full. In almost any European city, you will find busy nightclubs during the weekend. But what is really good is being able to find a party on a Monday night.
And this is important because Erasmus students do not have a normal schedule like everybody else. You might have Tuesday or Wednesday free and then spend the rest of the week studying all day. That is why choosing a city where you can even find something happening on Mondays and Tuesdays can be extremely useful.
And when we talk about partying, we are not talking only about nightclubs. We pay special attention to cities that have language exchanges, concerts, student events and social nights with pub crawls.
The First-Week Test
The first week of your Erasmus is extremely important because this is usually when the biggest events take place. Welcome parties are really important because they allow new students to start making new friendships.
The cities we have chosen for this list have student districts where different activities are organised in bars and nightclubs. There are also activities that take place before the music gets too loud.
The big question we want to answer is whether you can really have an amazing night even when you do not know any of the other students yet. We selected cities where this kind of connection is easier thanks to the different activities organised for Erasmus students.
The 3 A.M. Test
There may be some European cities where the nightlife is surprisingly good. But what is the point if, when everything finishes at three in the morning, you have to travel a long distance back to your student accommodation?
We also evaluated cities with easy and affordable transport, whether that means cheap car services or even buses operating throughout the night.
European cities with night buses, continuous metro services or even student districts where you can find everything in the same area appear on our list. As a good Erasmus student, your wallet probably will not be full of euros, so it is also important that everything is relatively central and that you can move around without spending too much money.
The November Test
Even though many of the best parties happen at the beginning of your Erasmus and there are also great parties when the semester is ending, in some cities you will not find the same atmosphere during winter.
The Erasmus cities we have chosen for enjoying great nights out have the advantage that even during winter there are events. We selected cities with nightclubs, bars, pubs and a very active social scene even during the colder months.
The best destinations for Erasmus students are generally not cities that only work during summer. You are going to live there for an entire semester and you will want to go out whenever you feel like it.
With that said, let’s begin with our list of the best european cities for erasmus with awesome nightlife.
Barcelona: The Best All-Round Erasmus Nightlife City
Barcelona is one of the few cities on this list that has passed all of our tests with excellent results.
The great advantage is that it does not only have famous clubs next to the Mediterranean beach. Barcelona has many different versions of nightlife, and all of them are within your reach.
In different Barcelona neighbourhoods such as El Born or the Gothic Quarter, you can find plenty of bars and restaurants where you can begin the night. There is also Passeig de Gràcia and the Raval, which have a large nightlife offering.
We also cannot ignore the fact that Erasmus students who come to Barcelona organise many events throughout the semester. Together with e-VOLVE, they organise massive bar crawls in Barcelona. There are also social activities in different clubs and special parties for the LGBTQ+ community with a completely international focus.
Barcelona’s official tourism organisation describes precisely this neighbourhood-based variety. This is especially useful during Erasmus because friendship groups are rarely uniform.
The different options you can find in Barcelona can satisfy the different personalities that will exist inside your new group of friends. One night they may want to dance salsa and another night listen to electronic music, but thanks to the amount of choice you can find in Barcelona, there will normally be something for everyone.
Barcelona is best for: students who want maximum variety, warm-weather social life and a city that works for groups with very different musical tastes.
Lisbon: The City Where a Night Out Builds Itself
Lisbon has the advantage of offering new Erasmus students a natural route for a night out. You do not need to decide with your friends which club you are going to choose before leaving the apartment. Many Erasmus students in Lisbon begin in Bairro Alto, continue through Bica and then move towards Cais do Sodré.
Lisbon’s official tourism organisation describes this progression almost as a downhill journey: people begin among the many bars and restaurants of Bairro Alto, move through Bica and finish near the clubs and old sailors’ bars of Cais do Sodré.
This city is ideal for Erasmus students who like to go with the flow. You will not need too much organisation to have amazingly fun nights. You could start with one group of friends in a bar, and because student nightlife is so active, you may find another group you know in the next bar and simply move from one group to another.
The Erasmus associations here also make a big effort and manage to get most students to know each other in a relatively short time. Entering a nightclub full of people can sometimes feel a little uncomfortable. Joining a few friends who are drinking in bars with outdoor terraces can be much more fun, and from there you can later go dancing to the music being played around the area.
Its weakness is that the atmosphere can encourage Erasmus students to live almost entirely within the same international nightlife corridor. The city has far more to offer than Bairro Alto and Pink Street, and residents live alongside many of these nightlife areas.
Respect for noise, streets and residential buildings matters. Erasmus students are people who will only be there for a few months, but that does not mean they can stop respecting Lisbon’s rules. If you go to Lisbon on Erasmus, just take special care not to become that noisy student and enjoy yourself properly with your friends.
Lisbon is best for: sociable students who dislike rigid plans and want nights that begin casually before becoming more energetic.
Budapest: The Fastest City for Turning Strangers into a Group
Just like Lisbon, Budapest focuses heavily on activities that help new Erasmus students meet each other in record time. Multiple parties are organised not only at the beginning of the semester but throughout all the months that Erasmus and the academic year last.
Budapest is unusually good at solving one of the main problems of Erasmus nightlife: helping new people become a group quickly.
Parties usually take place in the famous ruin bars that started becoming popular around the early 2000s. These bars have an incredible and original style, often inside old buildings, and different Erasmus programmes and activities take place inside them.
These places that look almost like ruins have the great advantage that you can do practically everything inside them. By this we mean that there will be areas for people who want to sit down, other spaces for people who want to dance and other areas where people can play drinking games. It is also true that this city is one of the more affordable places for going out.
Another great advantage is the night transport and how easy it is to move from one point to another. It is not like Barcelona or Madrid, where you can find student neighbourhoods with practically everything you could ask for in the same place. But in Budapest, you can find fast and affordable transport to move around the city whenever you need it.
Budapest is best for: large friendship groups, students who want something happening throughout the week and people who prefer flexible multi-space venues to strict club itineraries.
Prague: The Best City for Low-Friction Nightlife
Prague is characterised as an Erasmus city that has almost everything inside a relatively compact area.
Prague’s hidden advantage is logistical. When the daytime metro and tram network stops, nine night tram lines operate across the city. They connect through the central interchange at Lazarská and currently run at shorter intervals on Friday and Saturday nights. Night buses extend the network into other areas.
This represents a great advantage for students because, with rental prices increasing throughout Europe and Prague being no exception, living outside the centre may be one of the smartest decisions you can make. You can live farther away without having to pay for a taxi every single time you go out.
Another big advantage Prague offers as an ideal Erasmus destination for students who want to have fun is the large number of bars spread across different neighbourhoods. Areas such as Vinohrady, Žižkov, Karlín, Holešovice and Nusle all offer different options. Holešovice in particular has developed around old industrial spaces and has a more contemporary cultural identity.
The best Erasmus approach is therefore not to reject the centre, but to avoid confusing it with the entire city. Old Town is convenient when a new international group is still learning its way around. Later in the semester, neighbourhood bars and cultural venues make the experience more varied and provide better opportunities to meet residents.
Prague is best for: students who value convenience, reliable late transport and the ability to explore different nightlife districts without excessive planning.
Munich: The Best Choice for Students Who Want More Than the Erasmus Bubble
We have reached what is possibly one of the best cities for Erasmus students in all of Europe. We know that Germany is one of the leading countries in the European Union when it comes to development, and Munich takes this even further within Germany. Spending your Erasmus here can give you facilities and unique experiences.
Although many students may imagine this destination only because of Oktoberfest, the reality is that this city has a student atmosphere that is difficult to describe. Munich is not the most obvious Erasmus party destination.
Nights in Munich include exclusive clubs, a techno cultural scene, live performances and alternative spaces. The official city guide presents everything from P1 and Rote Sonne to Bahnwärter Thiel and Muffatwerk, showing how different the city can feel from one venue to another.
For students, this is especially good because one night they can experience something with an original Bavarian German style, while another night they can discover a completely different and more modern side of Munich.
Munich also performs very well in the 3 A.M. Test. It is a relatively compact city but is very well connected and has the essential services you need to move from one side of the city to another. There are night buses and trams operating through the night.
Erasmus life here is not as automatic as it can be in Barcelona or Budapest. You may not immediately enter the big Erasmus bubble during your first few weeks because the student associations do not always work in the same way as they do in other cities. But if there is one thing worth mentioning about Munich, it is that the connections you make can become much stronger. This often has something to do with German culture, and the relationships you create during your student semester may last for a very long time.
The first weeks are extremely important because they are usually when you will make most of your new friends. That is why Pub Crawl Munich works as a useful social shortcut: one organised evening provides an international group, a clear plan and an introduction to the city beyond the most obvious beer halls.
After making those first contacts, students in Munich can continue building their own routine. Many nightclubs will have their own entrance policies and nightlife is less concentrated around obvious Erasmus neighbourhoods. But you will always be able to go out with the new friends you made at the beginning.
Munich is best for: students who want Bavarian culture, modern nightlife and more opportunities to move beyond an exclusively international Erasmus circle.
Kraków: The Compact Student City with a Cultural Nightlife
Kraków is one of those cities that may surprise you when you start looking at the best european cities for erasmus. At first, you may think mainly about its historic centre and all the tourists walking around it, but the reality is that behind this tourist side there is also a very strong student and university life.
And this is exactly what makes Kraków interesting for Erasmus students.
The city has places that have been connected with student culture for years. Pod Jaszczurami, located right on the Main Market Square, has a student atmosphere with concerts and cultural activities. Other venues such as Studio, Rotunda and Kwadrat are also closely connected with Kraków’s university communities.
Then you have Kazimierz, which gives you a completely different version of the city.
Here you can find bars, live music, alternative places and venues with a much more artistic personality. It is not only about finding a nightclub where you can dance until late. You can begin the evening with a drink, move to a concert and later decide whether you want to continue somewhere else.
This is a huge advantage for Erasmus students because you do not need to organise every single detail before leaving home.
You can start the night in the historic centre with your new university friends and later move towards Kazimierz. If somebody in the group does not want to go to a normal nightclub, there will usually be another option that can keep everyone happy.
The student calendar is also very active. Events such as Juwenalia bring students from different universities together through concerts, performances and many different activities. Obviously, these large events do not happen throughout the whole semester, but when they do happen, they give Erasmus students another opportunity to meet people outside their normal group.
The weakness of Kraków is similar to Prague. If you only follow the easiest recommendations you find online, you could spend your entire Erasmus going to the same tourist places.
The best thing you can do is use those places at the beginning, when you still do not know the city, and then start discovering the bars, music venues and university events that local students actually attend.
Kraków is best for: students who want a compact city, strong academic identity and nightlife that includes music and culture alongside conventional parties.
Ghent: The Smaller Student City with a Serious Music Identity
Ghent may be one of the strangest cities on this list for somebody who is only thinking about the big European capitals.
But that is exactly why it deserves to be here.
This Belgian city has thousands of students and, despite being much smaller than Barcelona, Madrid or Berlin, it has several areas where student nightlife is really strong. Overpoort, Vlasmarkt and Oude Beestenmarkt are some of the main places where students go out, and each one offers a slightly different atmosphere.
Overpoort is probably the easiest area for an Erasmus student to understand.
It is very connected to student life, it gets busy and you can go there with your university group without spending half the night planning where everybody wants to go. There are bars, places to dance and enough people around to make even a normal student night feel active.
Vlasmarkt and Oude Beestenmarkt give you other options when you want to change the atmosphere.
Ghent also has something especially interesting for people who love music. The city has a strong electronic and live-music identity, with underground clubs, jazz venues and smaller places where you can discover music without needing to go to a gigantic commercial nightclub.
And the fact that Ghent is smaller can actually work in your favour during Erasmus.
In a huge city, you can meet somebody at a party and never see that person again. In Ghent, there is a much better chance that the person sitting next to you in class will appear again in the same bar, concert or student event a few days later.
That makes it easier for your group of friends to grow naturally.
You will also have more opportunities to mix with local students because the international community exists inside a city with a strong local student culture. You are less likely to spend your whole semester inside a nightlife area designed only for tourists.
Obviously, the city has fewer nightlife options than Barcelona or other much larger destinations. If your idea of Erasmus is going to a different enormous nightclub every night, Ghent may eventually feel too small.
But if you want a university city where people know each other, where music is important and where your Erasmus group can quickly start feeling like part of the city, Ghent can be an excellent choice.
Ghent is best for: students who want a genuine university city, a serious music scene and a social environment that becomes familiar quickly.
Enjoy the best european cities for erasmus for nightlife and new friends
The best European cities for Erasmus students who love nightlife are not necessarily the cities with the largest clubs or the latest closing times.
They are the places where nightlife remains accessible after the excitement of arrival disappears.
Barcelona is the strongest all-rounder. Lisbon makes spontaneous socialising unusually easy. Budapest is excellent for forming large groups, while Prague removes much of the logistical difficulty from going out.
Munich offers one of the most distinctive combinations of local tradition and modern nightlife. Bologna turns university life itself into the social scene. Kraków combines student culture with music and history, while Ghent proves that a smaller city can possess a serious nightlife identity.
The final choice depends on what you want from the semester.
Do you want maximum variety?
A compact student community?
Easy international friendships?
More contact with local culture?
Electronic music?
Outdoor evenings?
A city that works throughout winter?
The right Erasmus city is not simply the one that looks best on Saturday night.
It is the one that still feels like your city on an ordinary Wednesday, three months after you arrived. Want to know more about nighlife! Then visit our Nightlife in Barcelona Blog