VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Key West or Seattle?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Seattle for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Key West leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Seattle 55: Key West leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Seattle 60: Key West leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Seattle 22: Seattle leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West and Seattle are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Seattle.

Your match

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

Key West
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Seattle
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSeattle

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). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSeattle
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 m40 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSeattle
City population26,444737,015
People per km²1,4071,996
Museums within 10 km727
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 Seattle 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.