VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License.

Key West or Lucerne?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Lucerne for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lucerne’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, Lucerne 35: Key West leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Lucerne 35: Key West leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Lucerne 58: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Lucerne 28: Key West leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Lucerne 92: Lucerne leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Lucerne 78: Lucerne leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Lucerne 86: Lucerne leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Lucerne 8: Key West leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Lucerne 66: Lucerne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Lucerne 46: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Lucerne.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Lucerne
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors 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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestLucerne

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.

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre). Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestLucerne
Official language-French, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation4 m436 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestLucerne
City population26,44486,234
People per km²1,4072,963
Museums within 10 km714
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 Lucerne 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.