VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Praia Mole in Florianopolis, Florianopolis
FlorianopolisPraia Mole in Florianopolis

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Florianopolis by Papa Pic, CC0.

Cocoa Beach or Florianopolis?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Florianopolis for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Florianopolis’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, Florianopolis 85: Florianopolis leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Florianopolis 58: Florianopolis leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Florianopolis 33: Florianopolis leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Florianopolis 78: Florianopolis leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Florianopolis 50: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Florianopolis 60: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Florianopolis 28: Florianopolis leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Florianopolis 33: Florianopolis leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Florianopolis 60: Florianopolis leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Florianopolis 28: Florianopolis leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Florianopolis 45: Florianopolis leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Florianopolis.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Florianopolis
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife 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

Florianopolis in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachFlorianopolis

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). Florianopolis: 1991-2020 normals, Florianopolis (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachFlorianopolis
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation0 m3 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsHercílio Luz International Airport (FLN)9 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachFlorianopolis
City population11,354587,486
People per km²290870
Museums within 10 km311
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months7 months

Where else could you go?

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