VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License.

Cocoa Beach or Manila?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Manila for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Manila’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, Manila 12: Cocoa Beach leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Manila 64: Manila leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Manila 54: Manila leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Manila 64: Manila leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Manila 40: Cocoa Beach leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Manila 42: Cocoa Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Manila 42: Cocoa Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Manila 26: Manila leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Manila 60: Manila leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Manila 77: Manila leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Manila 50: Manila leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Manila 40: Manila leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Manila.

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.

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachManila

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). Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachManila
Official language-English, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m9 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachManila
City population11,3541,902,590
People per km²29076,104
Museums within 10 km327
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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