VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License.

Cocoa Beach or Laguna 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
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Laguna Beach for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Laguna 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, Laguna Beach 72: Cocoa Beach leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Laguna Beach 40: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Laguna Beach 27: Laguna Beach leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Laguna Beach 18: Cocoa Beach leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Laguna Beach 73: Laguna Beach leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Laguna Beach 72: Laguna Beach leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Laguna Beach 68: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Laguna Beach 33: Laguna Beach leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Laguna Beach 46: Laguna Beach leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Laguna Beach 12: Cocoa Beach leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Laguna Beach 40: Laguna Beach leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Laguna Beach 47: Laguna Beach leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Laguna 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 nightlife with your weighting.

Laguna Beach
Best match
46match

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

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °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 BeachLaguna 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). Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachLaguna 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 m6 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachLaguna Beach
City population11,35423,032
People per km²290907
Museums within 10 km32
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 Laguna 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.