VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

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

Cocoa Beach or Galway?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

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

Choose Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Cocoa Beach leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Galway 45: Galway leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Galway 33: Galway leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Galway 50: Galway leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Galway 78: Galway leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Galway 56: Galway leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Galway 42: Cocoa Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Galway 58: Galway leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Galway 38: Galway leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Galway 28: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Galway 57: Galway leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Galway 28: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Galway.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Galway
Best match
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachGalway

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.

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachGalway
Official language-English, Irish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation0 m25 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachGalway
City population11,35483,456
People per km²2901,563
Museums within 10 km34
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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