VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Key West or Scottsdale?

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
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Key West leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Scottsdale 38: Key West leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Scottsdale 52: Key West leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Scottsdale 68: Scottsdale leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Scottsdale 50: Scottsdale leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Scottsdale 20: Key West leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Scottsdale 32: Scottsdale leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 32 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on wellness and shopping 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestScottsdale
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m380 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestScottsdale
City population26,444241,361
People per km²1,407-
Museums within 10 km710
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Scottsdale 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.