VacationSelector
Cocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols, Cocoa Beach
Cocoa BeachCocoa Beach Pier behind yellow parasols
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Cocoa Beach by Benoît Prieur, CC0; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cocoa Beach or Scottsdale?

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 Scottsdale for

  • wellness
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Cocoa Beach leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Cocoa Beach 32, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cocoa Beach 12, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Cocoa Beach 27, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cocoa Beach 62, Scottsdale 68: Scottsdale leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cocoa Beach 52, Scottsdale 50: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cocoa Beach 72, Scottsdale 60: Cocoa Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cocoa Beach 22, Scottsdale 20: Cocoa Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cocoa Beach 20, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Cocoa Beach 40, Scottsdale 32: Cocoa Beach leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cocoa Beach 14, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cocoa Beach 30, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 42 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cocoa Beach and Scottsdale.

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.

Scottsdale
Best match
46match

Wins on wellness 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
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Cocoa BeachScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCocoa BeachScottsdale
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation0 m380 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)68 km from centre170 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCocoa BeachScottsdale
City population11,354241,361
People per km²290-
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Scottsdale 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.