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No, but I worked in Bratislava and had colleagues who'd previously worked in those three cities. They mostly talked about social life and tourism, which were fun in all three. And salary was higher in all three, too, but so was cost of living compared to Bratislava (though that might have changed since Slovakia changed currency).

Can't help comparing the three, really, sorry.

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Coincidentally I moved to Bratislava 6 months ago with my partner who has a TEFL job here and we also considered each of the places you mention as we are familiar with all 3 cities. We seriously considered Berlin and Spain (I will mention that later) and only ended up here because the right job came along.

I guess whether the rate of pay you earn covers the cost of living depends on the actual job you have and the number of hours you work so it's difficult to give an accurate answer. In terms of the relative cost of living, I find Budapest to be the cheapest, Prague second and Berlin the most expensive by quite a long way. There is a comparison site called numbeo which is useful if you can read between the lines a little.

After quite a bit of research and spending a lot of time in Budapest and Berlin, of your 3 cities we thought that TEFL wages in Prague were the worst when compared to the cost of living there. Wages in Budapest are low as well but the cost of living is proportionally lower to that in Prague. Out of the three cities I feel (based on wages v. cost of living) that Berlin would be your best bet. This is because wages are much higher and yet proportionally costs are better. Costs in Bratislava are somewhere between Prague and Budapest.

Whether the work is there though, I am unsure but you will have access to the online sites that advertise vacancies. Sorry I can't be more helpful here.

I have a question for you though.....did you find sufficient work in Spain to cover your cost of living there and in which part of Spain did you live. I ask as at some point in the future we are likely to head in that direction and we are flexible about location although (as with most Brits) have a desire to head somewhere coastal and sunny - so Malaga, Alicante or maybe even Barcelona would work.

I would be interested to know where you have/are headed and if you think I may be able to provide any more information, drop me a message.

Dave

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to largianit: I'm interested in hearing which Istanbul school you taught at, as my son is about to sign up for 2 years teaching maths at The Koç School. thanks