Jaén.

ESN Jaén, based on the Las Lagunillas campus, organises the cultural and leisure side of exchange life, from welcoming new arrivals to running trips and integration activities throughout the year. The association also helps with academic orientation and accommodation questions, and was recognised with a national Eñe award for a project supporting Ukrainian students on mobility programmes. Alongside ESN, the university's own Welcome Centre pairs every incoming exchange student with a local Buddy Programme mentor as soon as they register, making the first weeks easier to navigate.

• Join ESN Jaén for trips, welcome events and cultural integration activities.
• Get matched with a local mentor through the university's Buddy Programme.
• Ask ESN Jaén about accommodation and academic orientation once you arrive.

Jaén is one of the cheaper university cities in Spain. A one bedroom flat outside the centre averages around 433 euros a month on Numbeo, with typical listings ranging from 300 to 550 euros. An inexpensive restaurant meal costs about 15 euros, and a cappuccino as little as 1.45 euros, both well below the Spanish average. Local buses charge 1 euro for a single ticket, but the student bonobus card brings each ride down to 0.48 euros, or 0.38 euros with the government subsidy applied.

• Budget around 433 euros for a one bedroom flat outside the centre.
• Pay about 15 euros for a restaurant meal, among Spain's lower averages.
• Get the student bonobus card to cut each bus ride to 0.48 euros.

On campus, the Colegio Mayor Domingo Savio offers 152 mixed places right next to the sports facilities, while the newer Alojamientos Universitarios building across the road adds 103 individual apartments, 37 doubles and 5 adapted units, open to exchange students as well as researchers and staff. Both can be booked for a full year or a shorter stay, though demand now outstrips what the two buildings can hold, and the university has a new residence planned in the historic centre for about 180 more beds. On the private market, compare several rooms and always visit in person before paying anything.

• Apply for the 152 place Colegio Mayor Domingo Savio, right on campus.
• Consider the newer Alojamientos Universitarios apartments across from the Colegio Mayor.
• Book campus housing early, since demand now outstrips the beds available.

Jaén has no airport of its own: the closest is Granada-Jaén Federico García Lorca, with Málaga, Sevilla and Madrid-Barajas as backups for international connections. The train station, about 2 kilometres from the centre, has no high speed line but runs direct medium distance trains from Madrid, Córdoba, Sevilla and Cádiz. The bus station, roughly 10 minutes from the cathedral, is busier still, with around 16 daily departures to Granada alone on Alsa, plus routes to Córdoba, Málaga and Madrid. Around town, single urban bus tickets cost 1 euro, dropping to 0.48 euros with a student bonobus card.

• Fly into Granada-Jaén airport, or Málaga, Sevilla or Madrid as backups.
• Catch one of 16 daily buses to Granada from the central station.
• Get a student bonobus card to cut urban bus fares to 0.48 euros.

The University of Jaén, founded in 1993, enrols close to 17,000 students across eight faculties and schools, with 972 academic staff and 53 degree programmes including double and international tracks. Most teaching happens on the Las Lagunillas campus in the city, alongside a Scientific and Technological campus in Linares and an affiliated centre in Úbeda. Exchange students register through the Vice-rectorate for Internationalisation, whose Welcome Centre in building C4 on Las Lagunillas handles enrolment, course selection and paperwork, and can point you toward Spanish language courses at the university's Advanced Center for Modern Languages before term starts.

• Study at the Las Lagunillas campus, home to eight faculties and schools.
• Register through the Welcome Centre in building C4 for enrolment help.
• Take Spanish courses at the Advanced Center for Modern Languages before term.

Was du brauchst, hängt komplett von deiner Nationalität ab. EU-, EWR- und Schweizer Studierende brauchen kein Visum, du meldest dich nur für eine NIE (Ausländer-ID-Nummer) an, wenn du lang genug bleibst. Nicht-EU-Studierende, die über 90 Tage bleiben, brauchen normalerweise ein nationales Studentenvisum, das vor der Ankunft bei einem spanischen Konsulat beantragt wird, danach in Spanien eine TIE-Aufenthaltskarte.

Start den Visa-Prozess früh, er ist langsam und dokumentenlastig: Nachweis der Einschreibung, Finanzmittel, private Krankenversicherung und oft ein Führungszeugnis plus ärztliches Attest. Sobald du in Spanien bist, buch deinen NIE/TIE-Termin (cita previa) sofort bei Ankunft, Slots verschwinden in großen Städten schnell.

• EU/EWR/Schweiz, kein Visum, nur NIE anmelden
• Nicht-EU über 90 Tage, Studentenvisum vor Ankunft
• TIE-Karte innerhalb von 30 Tagen nach Landung holen
• Cita-previa-Termin sofort buchen

Jaén province produces around a fifth of the world's olive oil, more than all of Italy combined, from over 66 million trees across 550,000 hectares, mostly of the picual variety. In the city itself, going out for tapas works differently than in much of Spain: order a drink in a bar and a tapa comes included in the price, so a bar crawl through the old town doubles as a cheap dinner. For culture, the Arab Baths beneath the Palacio de Villardompardo rank among the largest preserved Islamic bathhouses in Spain, a legacy of the city's centuries under Al-Andalus rule.

• Order a drink in the old town and get a free tapa with it.
• Visit the Arab Baths beneath the Palacio de Villardompardo, among Spain's largest.
• Try local olive oil from the region producing a fifth of the world's supply.

The Casco Antiguo, the old town around the cathedral and the Arab Baths, is the natural base for narrow streets, tapas bars and views up toward the Castle of Santa Catalina. El Bulevar, built from 1881 as the Paseo de la Estación, is a tree lined, twenty metre wide avenue that still links the train station to the centre and has grown into a modern residential and commercial strip. Students without a car often settle close to Las Lagunillas, the university's main campus on the edge of the city, for quick access to lectures and campus sports facilities.

• Base yourself in the Casco Antiguo for tapas bars and cathedral views.
• Walk El Bulevar, the tree lined avenue linking the station to downtown.
• Settle near Las Lagunillas campus for quick access to lectures and sport.

Granada is the easiest weekend trip, just over an hour away with more than 23 Alsa buses running daily between the two cities. Córdoba takes around 1 hour 45 minutes by the same operator, with a couple of direct daily departures. Closer still, the Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza, a UNESCO World Heritage duo listed in 2003 for their Vandelvira architecture, sit about 45 minutes and an hour from Jaén respectively on the same bus line, only 9 kilometres apart from each other.

• Reach Granada in about an hour on one of 23 daily Alsa buses.
• Visit Córdoba in around 1 hour 45 by direct daily bus service.
• Explore Úbeda and Baeza, a UNESCO duo just 9 kilometres apart.

Since Jaén has no airport of its own, plan any flight through Granada, Málaga, Sevilla or Madrid and build in time for the onward bus or train. Register for the Buddy Programme and ESN Jaén activities as soon as you arrive, since both are designed to smooth over the first disorienting weeks. Apply for campus housing early: the university's own accommodation regularly runs short, and the private market fills up fast around the start of term. Get a student bonobus card on day one, since it cuts every local bus ride to well under a euro.

• Plan flights through Granada, Málaga, Sevilla or Madrid, then continue by bus.
• Apply for campus housing early, since demand regularly outstrips what's available.
• Get a student bonobus card on day one for bus rides under a euro.