VacationSelector
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Florianopolis 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 Florianopolis for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Key West for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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. Florianopolis 85, Key West 60: Florianopolis leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Florianopolis 58, Key West 45: Florianopolis leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Florianopolis 33, Key West 40: Key West leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Florianopolis 60, Key West 62: Key West leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florianopolis 78, Key West 62: Florianopolis leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Florianopolis 50, Key West 28: Florianopolis leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Florianopolis 60, Key West 40: Florianopolis leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Florianopolis 28, Key West 62: Key West leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Florianopolis 33, Key West 30: Florianopolis leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Florianopolis 60, Key West 15: Florianopolis leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florianopolis 28, Key West 38: Key West leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florianopolis 45, Key West 40: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florianopolis and Key West.

Your match

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

Florianopolis
Best match
52match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FlorianopolisKey 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. Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorianopolisKey West
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation3 m4 m
Main airportHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorianopolisKey West
City population587,48626,444
People per km²8701,407
Museums within 10 km117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florianopolis 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.