VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Key West or Madrid?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Madrid for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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, Madrid 5: Key West leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Madrid 60: Key West leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 61 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Madrid 36: Key West leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Madrid.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestMadrid

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). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestMadrid
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation4 m663 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestMadrid
City population26,4443,506,730
People per km²1,4075,801
Museums within 10 km788
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Madrid 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.