VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Key West for

  • 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. Budapest 25, Key West 60: Key West leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Key West 45: Budapest leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Key West 40: Budapest leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Key West 62: Budapest leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Key West 62: Key West leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Key West 28: Budapest leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Key West 40: Budapest leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Key West 62: Budapest leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Key West 30: Budapest leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Key West 15: Budapest leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Key West 38: Budapest leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Key West 40: Budapest leads by 58 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Key West.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Key West
44match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
BudapestKey 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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestKey West
Official languageHungarian-
CurrencyForint (HUF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation117 m4 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestKey West
City population1,675,77726,444
People per km²3,1911,407
Museums within 10 km817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Budapest 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.