VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Key West or Los Angeles?

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

  • getting around

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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 and Los Angeles are level on 60.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Los Angeles 66: Los Angeles leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Los Angeles 67: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 44 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Los Angeles 25: Key West leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Los Angeles 24: Los Angeles leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Los Angeles 83: Los Angeles leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Los Angeles.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around with your weighting.

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping 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.

Key West in July

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestLos Angeles

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). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestLos Angeles
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 m106 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestLos Angeles
City population26,4443,898,747
People per km²1,4072,994
Museums within 10 km739
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Key West or Los Angeles 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.