VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cocoa Beach or Medellin?

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 Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Cocoa Beach leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 49 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Medellin 66: Medellin leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Medellin 58: Medellin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Medellin 50: Cocoa Beach leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Medellin 55: Medellin leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Medellin 45: Medellin leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Medellin 42: Medellin leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach and Medellin are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Medellin.

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.

Medellin
Best match
51match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachMedellin

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.

Medellin 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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachMedellin
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911123
Elevation0 m1,405 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachMedellin
City population11,3542,529,403
People per km²2906,644
Museums within 10 km314
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months-

Where else could you go?

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