VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0.

Acapulco or Cocoa Beach?

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 Acapulco for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Cocoa Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Cocoa Beach’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. Acapulco and Cocoa Beach are level on 80.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Cocoa Beach 32: Acapulco leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Cocoa Beach 12: Acapulco leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Cocoa Beach 27: Acapulco leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Cocoa Beach 62: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Cocoa Beach 52: Cocoa Beach leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Cocoa Beach 72: Cocoa Beach leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Cocoa Beach 22: Acapulco leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Cocoa Beach 20: Acapulco leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Cocoa Beach 40: Acapulco leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Cocoa Beach 14: Acapulco leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Cocoa Beach 30: Acapulco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Cocoa Beach.

Your match

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

Acapulco
Best match
44match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Cocoa Beach in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
147 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoCocoa Beach

Where the figures come from

Cocoa Beach 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Cocoa Beach: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cocoa / Patrick Air Force Base (11.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoCocoa Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m0 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoCocoa Beach
City population658,60911,354
People per km²350290
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months11 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Cocoa Beach 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.