VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Key West or Malaga?

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

Key West does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Malaga for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Malaga’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, Malaga 77: Malaga leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Malaga 68: Malaga leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Malaga 65: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Key West and Malaga are level on 62.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Malaga 73: Malaga leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Malaga 87: Malaga leads by 59 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Malaga 70: Malaga leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Malaga 70: Malaga leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Malaga 45: Malaga leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Malaga 42: Malaga leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Malaga.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on day trips and prices 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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestMalaga

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). Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestMalaga
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 m18 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestMalaga
City population26,444599,063
People per km²1,4071,517
Museums within 10 km732
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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