VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Key West for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Ghent 25, Key West 60: Key West leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Key West 45: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Key West 40: Ghent leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Key West 62: Key West leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Key West 62: Key West leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Key West 28: Ghent leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Key West 40: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Key West 62: Ghent leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Key West 30: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Key West 15: Ghent leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Key West 38: Ghent leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Key West 40: Key West leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Key West.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °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
GhentKey West

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentKey West
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation12 m4 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentKey West
City population272,65726,444
People per km²1,7281,407
Museums within 10 km307
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
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 Ghent or Key West somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.