VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cocoa Beach or Malaga?

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

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

Choose Malaga for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Malaga’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, Malaga 77: Cocoa Beach leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Malaga 68: Malaga leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Malaga 65: Malaga leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Malaga 62: Malaga leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Malaga 73: Malaga leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Malaga 87: Malaga leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Malaga 70: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Malaga 70: Malaga leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Malaga 45: Malaga leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Malaga 42: Malaga leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachMalaga

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). Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachMalaga
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation0 m18 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachMalaga
City population11,354599,063
People per km²2901,517
Museums within 10 km332
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Malaga 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.