VacationSelector
The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
CairoThe pyramids of Giza
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Cairo by Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Cairo 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 Cairo for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Key West for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Cairo 10, Key West 60: Key West leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Cairo 60, Key West 45: Cairo leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Cairo 96, Key West 40: Cairo leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Cairo 48, Key West 62: Key West leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cairo 30, Key West 62: Key West leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Cairo 66, Key West 28: Cairo leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Cairo 32, Key West 40: Key West leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cairo 35, Key West 62: Key West leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Cairo 58, Key West 30: Cairo leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Cairo 95, Key West 15: Cairo leads by 80 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cairo 50, Key West 38: Cairo leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cairo 15, Key West 40: Key West leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Key West.

Your match

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

Cairo
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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.

Cairo in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 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
CairoKey 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. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCairoKey West
Official languageArabic-
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180911
Elevation23 m4 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoKey West
City population9,801,53626,444
People per km²18,5641,407
Museums within 10 km487
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Cairo 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.