VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Key West for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Cebu and Key West are level on 60.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Key West 45: Cebu leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu and Key West are level on 40.
Nightlife. Cebu 46, Key West 62: Key West leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Key West 62: Key West leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Key West 28: Cebu leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cebu 45, Key West 40: Cebu leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Key West 62: Key West leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Key West 30: Cebu leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Key West 15: Cebu leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Key West 38: Key West leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Key West 40: Cebu leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Key West.

Your match

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

Cebu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around 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.

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CebuKey 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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuKey West
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, Taglish-
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation135 m4 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuKey West
City population965,33226,444
People per km²3,0651,407
Museums within 10 km57
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cebu 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.