VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Christchurch 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 Christchurch for

  • families
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Key West for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • 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. Christchurch 38, Key West 60: Key West leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch and Key West are level on 45.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Key West 40: Key West leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Key West 62: Key West leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Key West 62: Christchurch leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Key West 28: Christchurch leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Christchurch 66, Key West 40: Christchurch leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Key West 62: Key West leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Key West 30: Christchurch leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Key West 15: Christchurch leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch and Key West are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Key West 40: Christchurch leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Key West.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Christchurch
46match

Wins on families and prices with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 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
ChristchurchKey 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. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchKey West
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori-
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111911
Elevation20 m4 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchKey West
City population383,20026,444
People per km²1,2981,407
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Christchurch 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.