VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Key West or Santiago?

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
  • wellness
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santiago for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Key West leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Santiago 60: Key West leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Santiago 37: Key West leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Santiago.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSantiago

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). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSantiago
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation4 m575 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSantiago
City population26,4446,257,516
People per km²1,4077,468
Museums within 10 km754
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Santiago 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.