VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light, Punta del Este
Punta del EsteThe lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Punta del Este by Marcelo Campi, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cocoa Beach or Punta del Este?

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

  • prices
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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, Punta del Este 72: Cocoa Beach leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Punta del Este 55: Cocoa Beach leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Punta del Este 45: Cocoa Beach leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Punta del Este 55: Cocoa Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Punta del Este 42: Punta del Este leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Punta del Este 20: Cocoa Beach leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Punta del Este 32: Punta del Este leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on prices and families with your weighting.

Punta del Este
Best match
42match

Wins on nightlife and shopping 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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachPunta del Este

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.

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachPunta del Este
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m11 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachPunta del Este
City population11,3549,277
People per km²290455
Museums within 10 km35
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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