VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Colourful houses in the old town, Mazatlan
MazatlanColourful houses in the old town

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

Cocoa Beach or Mazatlan?

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

  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Mazatlan for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Mazatlan’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 and Mazatlan are level on 80.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Mazatlan 62: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Mazatlan 55: Mazatlan leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Mazatlan 66: Mazatlan leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Mazatlan 45: Cocoa Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Mazatlan 60: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Mazatlan 42: Mazatlan leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Mazatlan 30: Mazatlan leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Mazatlan 70: Mazatlan leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Mazatlan 40: Mazatlan leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Mazatlan 35: Mazatlan leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Mazatlan.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Mazatlan
Best match
52match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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

Mazatlan in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachMazatlan

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). Mazatlan: 1991-2020 normals, Colonia Juan Carras-Co Mazatlan, Sin. (2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachMazatlan
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m139 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsGeneral Rafael Buelna International Airport (MZT)16 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachMazatlan
City population11,354441,975
People per km²290-
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Mazatlan 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.