VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Cork 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 Cork for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Key West for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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. Cork 25, Key West 60: Key West leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Key West 45: Cork leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cork and Key West are level on 40.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Key West 62: Key West leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork and Key West are level on 62.
Day trips. Cork 68, Key West 28: Cork leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Key West 40: Cork leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Key West 62: Key West leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Key West 30: Cork leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Key West 15: Cork leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Key West 38: Cork leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Key West 40: Key West leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Key West.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cork
45match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Key West
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.

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
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
CorkKey West

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkKey West
Official languageEnglish, Irish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m4 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkKey West
City population222,33326,444
People per km²5,9611,407
Museums within 10 km57
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 Cork 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.