VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License.

Cocoa Beach or Colombo?

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 Cocoa Beach for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Colombo’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. Cocoa Beach 80, Colombo 55: Cocoa Beach leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Colombo 66: Colombo leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Colombo 35: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Colombo 32: Cocoa Beach leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Colombo 50: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Colombo 35: Cocoa Beach leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Colombo 35: Colombo leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Colombo 45: Colombo leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Colombo 78: Colombo leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Colombo 30: Colombo leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Colombo 48: Colombo leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Colombo.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Colombo
Best match
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachColombo

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. Cocoa Beach: 1961-1990 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cocoa / Patrick Air Force Base (11.2 km from centre). Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachColombo
Official language-Tamil, Sinhala
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number911Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation0 m1 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachColombo
City population11,354647,557
People per km²29017,361
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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