VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Key West or San Jose?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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, San Jose 30: Key West leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, San Jose 36: Key West leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, San Jose 33: Key West leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, San Jose 30: Key West leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, San Jose 20: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West and San Jose are level on 38.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, San Jose 30: Key West leads by 10 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and San Jose.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and beaches with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and families 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
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSan Jose

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). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSan Jose
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m25 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSan Jose
City population26,4441,013,240
People per km²1,4072,167
Museums within 10 km719
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Jose 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.