VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Austin or Key West?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Austin’s own page.

Choose Key West for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Key West’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Austin 30, Key West 60: Key West leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Key West 45: Austin leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Austin and Key West are level on 40.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Key West 62: Austin leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Key West 62: Key West leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Key West 28: Austin leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Key West 40: Austin leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Key West 62: Key West leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Key West 30: Austin leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Key West 15: Austin leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Key West 38: Austin leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin and Key West are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Key West.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinKey West

Where the figures come from

Key West's temperatures are measured 69 km from the centre, at Key West Airport.

Key West has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinKey West
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation149 m4 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinKey West
City population961,85526,444
People per km²1,2171,407
Museums within 10 km217
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Austin or Key West somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.