VacationSelector
Rocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay, Huatulco
HuatulcoRocks and beach in Tangolunda Bay
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Huatulco by Gzzz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Huatulco 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 Huatulco for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Key West for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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. Huatulco 86, Key West 60: Huatulco leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Huatulco 44, Key West 45: Key West leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Huatulco 15, Key West 40: Key West leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Huatulco 24, Key West 62: Key West leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huatulco 76, Key West 62: Huatulco leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Huatulco 40, Key West 28: Huatulco leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Huatulco 56, Key West 40: Huatulco leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Huatulco 33, Key West 62: Key West leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Huatulco 20, Key West 30: Key West leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Huatulco 62, Key West 15: Huatulco leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huatulco 9, Key West 38: Key West leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huatulco 52, Key West 40: Huatulco leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huatulco 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

Huatulco
43match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Huatulco in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
156 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HuatulcoKey West

Where the figures come from

Huatulco's temperatures are measured 42 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Huatulco's station stands 177 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Huatulco 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.

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. Huatulco: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (42.2 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuatulcoKey West
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation220 m4 m
Main airportBahías de Huatulco International Airport (HUX)15 km from centre13 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuatulcoKey West
City population7,40926,444
People per km²-1,407
Museums within 10 km07
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Huatulco 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.