VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The beach and pier at uShaka, Durban
DurbanThe beach and pier at uShaka

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Durban by Ossewa, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cocoa Beach or Durban?

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

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Durban for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Durban’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 and Durban are level on 80.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Durban 60: Durban leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Durban 38: Durban leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Durban 40: Durban leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Durban 68: Durban leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Durban 38: Cocoa Beach leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Durban 60: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Durban 20: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Durban 42: Durban leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Durban 72: Durban leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Durban 40: Durban leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach and Durban are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Durban.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Durban
Best match
49match

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

Durban in July

23 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachDurban

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). Durban: 1991-2020 normals, Durban, Durban International Airport (14.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachDurban
Official language-English, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign Language
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Rand (ZAR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCMN230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2
Emergency number911112
Elevation0 m22 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsKing Shaka International Airport (DUR)29 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachDurban
City population11,354595,061
People per km²2902,634
Museums within 10 km31
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Durban 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.