VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Cocoa Beach or Faro?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Faro for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Faro’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, Faro 74: Cocoa Beach leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Faro 48: Faro leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Faro 35: Faro leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Faro 32: Faro leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach and Faro are level on 62.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Faro 64: Faro leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Faro 60: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Faro 60: Faro leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Faro 35: Faro leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Faro 60: Faro leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Faro 30: Faro leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Faro 33: Faro leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights 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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachFaro

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). Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachFaro
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation0 m10 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachFaro
City population11,35464,560
People per km²290319
Museums within 10 km32
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cocoa Beach or Faro 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.