VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0.

Akumal 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 Akumal for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Cocoa Beach for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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. Akumal 88, Cocoa Beach 80: Akumal leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Cocoa Beach 32: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Cocoa Beach 12: Cocoa Beach leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Cocoa Beach 27: Cocoa Beach leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Cocoa Beach 62: Akumal leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Cocoa Beach 52: Akumal leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Cocoa Beach 72: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Cocoa Beach 22: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Cocoa Beach 20: Cocoa Beach leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Cocoa Beach 40: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Cocoa Beach 14: Cocoa Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Cocoa Beach 30: Akumal leads by 25 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Cocoa Beach.

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

Akumal
39match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Akumal in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Cocoa Beach in July

30 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
147 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalCocoa Beach

Where the figures come from

Akumal 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.

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. Akumal: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Cocoa Beach: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cocoa / Patrick Air Force Base (11.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalCocoa Beach
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m0 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalCocoa Beach
City population2,15411,354
People per km²-290
Museums within 10 km03
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 Akumal or Cocoa Beach somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.