VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el-Sheikh
Sharm el-SheikhThe lighthouse and harbour at Sharm el-Sheikh

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Sharm el-Sheikh by Tanya Dedyukhina, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Key West or Sharm el-Sheikh?

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
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sharm el-Sheikh for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Sharm el-Sheikh’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, Sharm el-Sheikh 87: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Key West leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 12: Key West leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 42: Key West leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 82: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Sharm el-Sheikh 30: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 62: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Key West 62, Sharm el-Sheikh 22: Key West leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Sharm el-Sheikh 25: Key West leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Sharm el-Sheikh 74: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Sharm el-Sheikh 10: Key West leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Sharm el-Sheikh 50: Sharm el-Sheikh leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Key West
44match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sharm el-Sheikh
44match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Sharm el-Sheikh in July

38 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestSharm el-Sheikh

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.

Sharm el-Sheikh has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Key West: 1991-2020 normals, Key West Airport (69.1 km from centre). Sharm el-Sheikh: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKey WestSharm el-Sheikh
Official language-Arabic
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation4 m1 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsSharm El Sheikh International Airport (SSH)16 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestSharm el-Sheikh
City population26,44473,000
People per km²1,407-
Museums within 10 km71
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Sharm el-Sheikh 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.