Cluj-Napoca.

Cluj-Napoca is Romania's student capital and knows it: Babes-Bolyai (UBB) is the country's biggest university, public transport is free for full-time students under 30, and dorm beds cost less than a night out elsewhere. The calendar peaks hard, UNTOLD fills the Cluj Arena each August and Electric Castle takes over a castle in July, and Transylvania starts at the city limits.

ESN Cluj-Napoca, Romania's first section, runs the international side from the Hasdeu student campus, with its International Party as a fixture. Nights spread between Piata Unirii and Piata Muzeului, with Form Space and Flying Circus as the club standbys. Then there are the giants: UNTOLD in August, Electric Castle at Banffy Castle in July, TIFF for film in June.

• Find ESN Cluj-Napoca at the Hasdeu campus and get on its list; the International Party is the recurring fixture.
• Bar-hop around Piata Unirii and Piata Muzeului, then finish the night at the Form Space or Flying Circus clubs.
• Plan the year around the festivals: Electric Castle in July, UNTOLD in August, TIFF for film in June.

Cluj is Romania's priciest city and still cheap by EU standards: from about 300 euros a month living in a dorm to 650 with your own studio. University beds cost 120 to 240 lei, roughly 25 to 45 euros, transport is free for students under 30, beer runs about 15 lei and a restaurant meal 60. Rent decides everything; the rest barely registers.

• A UBB dorm bed costs 120 to 240 lei a month, about 25 to 45 euros, across some 6,000 places in 17 residences.
• Public transport is free for full-time students under 30; UBB issues the card directly through its deal with CTP.
• A private studio averages around 2,000 lei, roughly 400 euros; beer at 15 lei keeps nights painless.

UBB alone runs 17 dorms with over 6,000 places at 120 to 240 lei; ask as soon as nominated. Privately, imobiliare.ro and Facebook groups carry the listings: Manastur is the big affordable student district, Marasti sits handy for the Technical University, and Gheorgheni stays calmer and greener at higher rents. Zorilor and Grigorescu are safe middle picks.

• Request a dorm through your university immediately; at 25 to 45 euros a month they are the deal of the corpus.
• Hunt private rooms on imobiliare.ro and the Facebook groups; Manastur gives the best price-to-connection ratio.
• Note that UBB asks Erasmus students to open a euro account at Banca Transilvania for the grant; plan a morning for it.

CTP's buses and trolleybuses blanket the city, and for full-time students under 30 every ride is free, via your university. The airport sits only 8 to 9 km east, reached by the A1E bus from Piata Mihai Viteazu on 3-lei tickets. ClujBike exists but demands a Romanian CNP number, so the share bikes unlock only after your registration paperwork.

• File the free-transport paperwork through your university in week one and ride everything at zero cost.
• Reach the airport on the A1E express bus from Piata Mihai Viteazu for 3 lei; it is barely out of town.
• Do your IGI registration fast: the certificate carries the CNP number that unlocks ClujBike and much of daily admin.

Babes-Bolyai (UBB) is Romania's biggest university and teaches officially in Romanian, Hungarian and German, with English-taught programmes on top, a genuine Transylvanian mix. The Technical University (UTCN) carries engineering, and the Iuliu Hatieganu Medical University runs a large international cohort. Between them the city's academic scene outweighs everything else in Romania.

• UBB's international centre sits at str. Avram Iancu 68 and processes the biggest exchange flow in Romania.
• Check your course language line by line; UBB runs parallel tracks in Romanian, Hungarian, German and English.

As an EU country, Romania asks nothing of EU or EEA passport holders beyond the paperwork every exchange student already carries. There is no visa process, no residence permit and no border check to worry about.

• European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) plus a complementary travel insurance policy required by most schools, from around 20 to 50 euros a month.
• Register your stay on France Diplomatie's Ariane platform before leaving.
• Romania is in the EU but not the eurozone: bring a fee free card like Revolut and use ING or Banca Transilvania ATMs for the best exchange rates.
• Grab a local Vodafone or Telekom SIM once you land, from 5 to 7 euros for close to unlimited data, and skip the airport kiosks.

Cluj eats both Romanian and Hungarian: sarmale and papanasi share menus with goulash and chimney cake, the city's double heritage on a plate. Cafe culture is serious, terraces ring Piata Unirii under the Gothic St Michael's church, and Cetatuia hill gives the sunset view. Student life clusters so tightly around Hasdeu that dinner plans make themselves.

• Order sarmale, then papanasi for dessert, then accept that the Hungarian chimney cake stand also deserves a visit.
• Climb Cetatuia hill at sunset for the classic panorama over the old town, the rooftops and the Somes river.
• Linger on the Piata Unirii terraces; the square under St Michael's is the city's default meeting point.

Manastur is the giant district students actually live in, with the cheapest rents and dense bus links. Marasti puts you close to the Technical University at fair prices, Gheorgheni trades a longer ride for parks and calm, and Zorilor sits well for the medical campus. The Centru is walkable to everything and priced like it.

• Manastur for the cheapest proper rooms in the city, with buses running dense and late into the night.
• Marasti if your courses sit at the Technical University; Zorilor if you study at the medical campus instead.
• Pay the Centru premium only if living beside the nightlife genuinely matters more than saving 100 euros a month.

Cluj's airport is a Wizz Air base with around 30 direct routes plus Ryanair on top, so cheap Europe is one hop away. By land, Transylvania is the playground: fortified Saxon towns, the Turda salt mine just outside the city, and long-haul buses to Budapest via Oradea. The Apuseni mountains fill the hiking weekends.

• Fly Wizz Air from the city's own base; with around 30 direct routes, weekend flights stay genuinely cheap.
• Descend into the Turda salt mine, a surreal underground world of lakes and machines just outside the city.
• Bus west to Oradea's art nouveau centre, or push on across the border to Budapest when a capital weekend calls.

Front-load the paperwork: the IGI registration certificate arrives same-day for EU students and carries the CNP number the whole system runs on. Expect real seasons, snowy January included, and pack for both. And book UNTOLD and Electric Castle housing months out; half a million visitors do not leave spare beds lying around.

• Go to the IGI with your university attestation in week one; the same-day certificate unlocks everything else.
• Sort the Banca Transilvania euro account that UBB requires early, so the Erasmus grant lands without drama.
• If you stay for UNTOLD or Electric Castle, lock housing months ahead; festival week rewrites all prices.