VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

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

Cocoa Beach or Portland?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Portland for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Cocoa Beach leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Portland 68: Portland leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Portland 38: Portland leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Portland 52: Portland leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Portland 84: Portland leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Portland 58: Portland leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Portland 55: Cocoa Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Portland 62: Portland leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Portland 52: Portland leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Portland 38: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Portland 55: Portland leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Portland 42: Portland leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Portland.

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.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachPortland
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m152 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachPortland
City population11,354652,503
People per km²2901,736
Museums within 10 km317
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 Portland 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.