VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Cocoa Beach or Phuket?

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

  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Phuket 45: Cocoa Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Phuket 65: Cocoa Beach leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach and Phuket are level on 22.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Phuket 20: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 52 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Phuket.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and nightlife 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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachPhuket

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.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

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). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation0 m19 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachPhuket
City population11,35477,610
People per km²2906,468
Museums within 10 km32
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 Phuket 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.