VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
The main beach with the green hills behind, Sayulita
SayulitaThe main beach with the green hills behind

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

Cocoa Beach or Sayulita?

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

  • families
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sayulita for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sayulita’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 and Sayulita are level on 80.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Sayulita 42: Sayulita leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Sayulita 7: Cocoa Beach leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Sayulita 72: Sayulita leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Sayulita 42: Cocoa Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Sayulita 42: Cocoa Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Sayulita 48: Sayulita leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Sayulita 33: Sayulita leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Sayulita 45: Sayulita leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Sayulita 12: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Sayulita 58: Sayulita leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Sayulita.

Your match

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

Cocoa Beach
39match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Sayulita
Best match
43match

Wins on wellness 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

Sayulita in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
342 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 BeachSayulita

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.

Sayulita has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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). Sayulita: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachSayulita
Official language-Spanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m2 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)29 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachSayulita
City population11,3543,390
People per km²290-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Sayulita 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.