Florida · island

What a trip to Key West costs

A week in Key West for eight people works out around $13,500 before flights — $475 a night for a place sleeping four, scaled for the group, plus $81 per adult per day for food. From Atlanta and New York it is cheaper for a family of four to drive than to fly.

The southernmost city in the contiguous United States, at the end of the Overseas Highway. It is known for Duval Street, the sunset gathering at Mallory Square, and Ernest Hemingway's former home.

with children okadults-only trip goodstroller / limited mobility ok

What a week costs

Lodging and food only. Seven nights, whole-property rental, all fees in.

Group	Lodging	Food	Total	Per person
4 people	$3,320	$2,270	$5,590	$1,400
8 people	$8,950	$4,540	$13,500	$1,690
12 people	$12,200	$6,800	$19,000	$1,590

Note the per-person column does not simply fall. A place sleeping four is the efficient unit; going to eight means changing property class, which costs more than double. Past eight it improves again — each additional person adds roughly half what they did over the first jump. The expensive step is condo to house, not the people you put in it.

How Key West compares

Key WestFlorida median of 4All destinations median of 40

Nightly lodging for a property sleeping four, month by month. Medians are taken across the seeded destinations in each group, so they are the middle of that group rather than any one place.

Averaged across the year, Key West runs $593 a night for a property that sleeps four. That is 101% above the median for all 40 destinations in the library ($295), making it the 5th most expensive of 40 destinations.

The same week costs $2,294 more in February than in May on lodging alone, before anyone has bought a flight.
It is at its most expensive in February and cheapest in May — the opposite of the library as a whole, which peaks in July. Advice about avoiding summer prices is the wrong way round here.
Within Florida (4 destinations here), it is 76% above the regional median of $337 a night.
Driving beats four seats from Atlanta and New York. The longest of those is New York — 1,335 road miles and 21.6h each way, saving $443 against four seats.
The cheapest seven nights of the year fall in May, at $3,325 for the whole property — $5,619 for the same week in February.
The sharpest single step is between April and May: moving the same week across that line changes the lodging bill by $2,294.
The closest thing to it on price is Newport, RI, a beach town: $13,262 for a week for eight against $13,485 here, 2% apart — the same money for a completely different trip.

When to go

Key West is at its most expensive in February and cheapest in May — a 69% swing on the same property.

Month	Per night, sleeps 4
January	$674
February	$803
March	$803
April	$803
May	$475
June	$475
July	$475
August	$475
September	$475
October	$495
November	$495
December	$674

Getting there

The two halves are not priced the same way, which is the whole point: a seat costs per person, a car costs the same whatever the headcount.

	Flying		Driving
From	Round tripper person	Each wayhours	Round tripper car	Each wayhours	Cheaperfor four
Atlanta	$399	4.2h	$1,122	12.2h2 days	driving
Chicago	$453	5.5h	$2,113	22.5h3 days	flying
Dallas	$439	5.1h	$1,842	19.6h2 days	flying
Denver	$494	8.2h	$2,845	30.2h4 days	flying
Los Angeles	$547	9.4h	$3,829	40.6h5 days	flying
New York	$618*	5.4h	$2,029	21.6h3 days	driving
Seattle	$586	10.3h	$4,544	48.2h5 days	flying
Phoenix	$514	8.6h	$3,215	34.1h4 days	flying

Drives over ten hours are shown in days as well: nobody drives that in one go. The nights on the road are not counted here, so a long drive is cheaper on this page than it would be in life. * published DOT average for that airport pair. Others are modeled from distance. Driving uses the IRS standard mileage rate, which includes running costs, not just fuel.

Compare Key West against other destinations →

Where these numbers come from

Lodging is indexed from the US federal per-diem schedule (GSA) for this county, calibrated against real rental listings. Food uses this location's own federal meal tier. Fares come from the DOT Consumer Airfare Report where that airport pair is published, and from a model fitted to 2,089 real DOT fares otherwise. Everything here is an estimate for planning, not a quote — check real prices before booking.