VacationSelector
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West

Photos: Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License; Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License.

Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach for

  • families
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Key West for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Huntington Beach 70, Key West 60: Huntington Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Huntington Beach 46, Key West 45: Huntington Beach leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Huntington Beach 14, Key West 40: Key West leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Huntington Beach 38, Key West 62: Key West leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Huntington Beach 58, Key West 62: Key West leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Huntington Beach 63, Key West 28: Huntington Beach leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Huntington Beach 82, Key West 40: Huntington Beach leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Huntington Beach 20, Key West 62: Key West leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Huntington Beach 42, Key West 30: Huntington Beach leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Huntington Beach 28, Key West 15: Huntington Beach leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Huntington Beach 33, Key West 38: Key West leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Huntington Beach 36, Key West 40: Key West leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Huntington Beach and Key West.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Key West in July

32 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Huntington BeachKey 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. Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre). Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHuntington BeachKey West
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation12 m4 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHuntington BeachKey West
City population198,71126,444
People per km²2,4061,407
Museums within 10 km37
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 Huntington Beach 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.