VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Key West or Las Vegas?

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 Key West for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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. Key West 60, Las Vegas 10: Key West leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Las Vegas 25: Key West leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Las Vegas 68: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Las Vegas 25: Key West leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Las Vegas 25: Key West leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Las Vegas 38: Key West leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Las Vegas 64: Las Vegas leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Las Vegas 35: Las Vegas leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West and Las Vegas are level on 40.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Las Vegas.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Las Vegas
Best match
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Key West in July

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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestLas Vegas

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. Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestLas Vegas
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m610 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestLas Vegas
City population26,444641,903
People per km²1,4071,843
Museums within 10 km721
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Key West or Las Vegas 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.