VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Cocoa Beach or Philadelphia?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Cocoa Beach leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Philadelphia 55: Philadelphia leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Philadelphia 52: Cocoa Beach leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Philadelphia 80: Philadelphia leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Philadelphia 68: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Philadelphia 66: Philadelphia leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach and Philadelphia are level on 40.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Philadelphia 26: Cocoa Beach leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Philadelphia.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights 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
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachPhiladelphia

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). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachPhiladelphia
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m12 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachPhiladelphia
City population11,3541,603,797
People per km²2904,339
Museums within 10 km354
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Philadelphia 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.