VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo, Mexico City
Mexico CityThe Metropolitan Cathedral on the Zócalo

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Mexico City by Oscar Dominguez, Pexels License.

Key West or Mexico City?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Mexico City for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Mexico City’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, Mexico City 5: Key West leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Mexico City 90: Mexico City leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Mexico City 88: Mexico City leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Mexico City 80: Mexico City leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Mexico City 50: Key West leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Mexico City 75: Mexico City leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Mexico City 58: Mexico City leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Mexico City 50: Key West leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Mexico City 76: Mexico City leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Mexico City 75: Mexico City leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Mexico City 72: Mexico City leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West and Mexico City are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Mexico City.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Mexico City
Best match
63match

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

Mexico City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
176 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestMexico City

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). Mexico City: 1991-2020 normals, Mexico Central, D. F. (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestMexico City
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m2,240 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsMexico City Benito Juárez International Airport (MEX)7 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestMexico City
City population26,4449,209,944
People per km²1,4076,202
Museums within 10 km7108
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km06
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 Mexico City 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.