VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Cocoa Beach or Huntington Beach?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: Cocoa Beach leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Huntington Beach 46: Huntington Beach leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Huntington Beach 14: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Huntington Beach 38: Huntington Beach leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Huntington Beach 58: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Huntington Beach 63: Huntington Beach leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Huntington Beach 20: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Huntington Beach 42: Huntington Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Huntington Beach 28: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Huntington Beach 33: Huntington Beach leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Huntington Beach 36: Huntington Beach leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
Best match
44match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachHuntington Beach

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). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachHuntington Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m12 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachHuntington Beach
City population11,354198,711
People per km²2902,406
Museums within 10 km33
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 Huntington Beach 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.