VacationSelector
Painted wooden houses under palms in Key West, Key West
Key WestPainted wooden houses under palms in Key West
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Key West by Dominik Gryzbon, Pexels License; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Key West or Vail?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Key West leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Key West 45, Vail 35: Key West leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Key West 40, Vail 10: Key West leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Key West 62, Vail 30: Key West leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Key West 62, Vail 92: Vail leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Key West 28, Vail 45: Vail leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Key West 40, Vail 55: Vail leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Key West and Vail are level on 62.
Shopping & style. Key West 30, Vail 35: Vail leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Key West 15, Vail 5: Key West leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Key West 38, Vail 42: Vail leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Key West 40, Vail 48: Vail leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Key West and Vail.

Your match

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

Key West
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Key WestVail

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.

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKey WestVail
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m2,445 m
Main airportKey West International Airport (EYW)2 km from centre24 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKey WestVail
City population26,4444,835
People per km²1,407400
Museums within 10 km71
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 Vail 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.