VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Key West or Reykjavik?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Key West leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Reykjavik 42: Key West leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Reykjavik 25: Key West leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Reykjavik 45: Key West leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Reykjavik 35: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Reykjavik 55: Key West leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Reykjavik 25: Key West leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Reykjavik 6: Key West leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestReykjavik

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). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestReykjavik
Official language-Icelandic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestReykjavik
City population26,444138,772
People per km²1,407569
Museums within 10 km723
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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