VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Key West or Luang Prabang?

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

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Luang Prabang for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Luang Prabang’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, Luang Prabang 14: Key West leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Luang Prabang 42: Key West leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Luang Prabang 65: Luang Prabang leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Luang Prabang 8: Key West leads by 54 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Luang Prabang 68: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Luang Prabang 35: Luang Prabang leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Luang Prabang 38: Key West leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Luang Prabang 50: Key West leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Luang Prabang 38: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Luang Prabang 80: Luang Prabang leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Luang Prabang 18: Key West leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Luang Prabang 60: Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Key West
44match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestLuang Prabang

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). Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestLuang Prabang
Official language-Lao
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Lao Kip (LAK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 195, fire 190
Elevation4 m305 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestLuang Prabang
City population26,44453,792
People per km²1,407-
Museums within 10 km70
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Luang Prabang 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.