VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cocoa Beach or Santa Monica?

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
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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, Santa Monica 66: Cocoa Beach leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Santa Monica 70: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Santa Monica 14: Cocoa Beach leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Santa Monica 45: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on shopping 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

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachSanta Monica

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). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachSanta Monica
City population11,35493,076
People per km²2904,270
Museums within 10 km319
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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