VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Dublin 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 Dublin for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Key West for

  • beaches
  • 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. Dublin 27, Key West 60: Key West leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Key West 45: Dublin leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Key West 40: Dublin leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Dublin and Key West are level on 62.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Key West 62: Dublin leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Key West 28: Dublin leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Key West 40: Dublin leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Key West 62: Dublin leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Key West 30: Dublin leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Key West 15: Dublin leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Key West 38: Dublin leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Key West 40: Key West leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Key West.

Your match

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

Dublin
Best match
53match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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
DublinKey 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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinKey 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
Elevation20 m4 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinKey West
City population592,71326,444
People per km²5,1541,407
Museums within 10 km407
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Dublin 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.