VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Key West or Salvador?

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

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Salvador for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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, Salvador 84: Salvador leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Salvador 52: Key West leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Salvador 42: Key West leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Salvador 32: Key West leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Salvador.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Salvador
Best match
58match

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSalvador

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). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSalvador
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation4 m8 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSalvador
City population26,4442,417,678
People per km²1,4073,489
Museums within 10 km749
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Key West or Salvador 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.