VacationSelector
Skiers among snow-covered firs, Beaver Creek
Beaver CreekSkiers among snow-covered firs
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Beaver Creek by Joe Lin, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Beaver Creek 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 Beaver Creek for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Key West for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Beaver Creek 6, Key West 60: Key West leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Beaver Creek 38, Key West 45: Key West leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Beaver Creek 7, Key West 40: Key West leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Beaver Creek 12, Key West 62: Key West leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beaver Creek 90, Key West 62: Beaver Creek leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Beaver Creek 40, Key West 28: Beaver Creek leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Beaver Creek 62, Key West 40: Beaver Creek leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Beaver Creek 45, Key West 62: Key West leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Beaver Creek 22, Key West 30: Key West leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Beaver Creek 5, Key West 15: Key West leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beaver Creek 36, Key West 38: Key West leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beaver Creek 55, Key West 40: Beaver Creek leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beaver Creek and Key West.

Your match

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

Beaver Creek
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

Key West
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Beaver Creek in July

29 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Beaver CreekKey West

Where the figures come from

Beaver Creek's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Eagle County / Gypsum.

Beaver Creek's station stands 268 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Beaver Creek 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.

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. Beaver Creek: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Eagle County / Gypsum (33.8 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeaver CreekKey West
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,264 m4 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)34 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeaver CreekKey West
City population-26,444
People per km²-1,407
Museums within 10 km07
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 Beaver Creek or Key West somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.