12 Ideas for What to Do on a Rainy Day While Traveling

We all know the feeling – waking up on what was supposed to be a jam-packed travel day, looking out the window, and seeing sideways rain. Womp womp womp.

Whether you had a boat tour booked, were finally planning to do that scenic hike you saved on Instagram three months ago, or just managed to get your sneakers dry again after the last storm… rain while traveling can definitely feel annoying at first. But after traveling full time for years, I’ve realized rainy days are usually the thing that forces you to slow down a little and do all the random travel things you normally keep putting off because you’re too busy trying to see EVERYTHING.

And weirdly, some of those slower rainy days end up becoming some of my favorite memories from trips.

Order In and Taste the Local Flavors

One of the best things to do on a rainy day while traveling is truly just leaning into it instead of trying to force your original plans to happen anyway.

There’s only so long you can pretend getting absolutely soaked while trying to walk around a city is still “fun” before you eventually give up, order food, and retreat back to your hotel.

Some of my favorite travel meals have actually happened during storms. Sitting inside somewhere in Thailand eating hot curry while the streets outside are flooding, or ordering tacos to an Airbnb in Tulum while a thunderstorm rolls through somehow just becomes part of the trip memory. Whether you’re sitting in a bustling capital like Bangkok or in a small town, it always hits.

And if you’ve traveled for a while, you probably already know every country seems to have completely different food delivery apps. I somehow ended up with SO many random delivery apps on my phone while traveling full time that eventually I had to sit down to delete subscriptions I forgot existed… Rappi in Mexico, Grab in Southeast Asia, random European delivery apps like Wolt that I used once and never opened again.

If you don’t know what delivery apps work where you’re visiting, just Google it, download a few, and try your luck. Hopefully, there’s an English version. If not… it’s part of the adventure too.

Entertain Yourself Digitally (Phone, Laptop, etc.)

Sometimes rainy travel days are really just for rotting peacefully in bed for a few hours with your phone and absolutely no guilt attached.

Watch a series, scroll TikTok too long, replay old games on your laptop, play games on your phone, accidentally fall into some insane Reddit thread about train travel in Eastern Europe at 2 p.m… There are worse ways to spend an afternoon, even if you can’t hike to the viewpoint.

I also sometimes weirdly love listening to local music from Spotify or local radio stations while I’m traveling because certain songs (which I Shazam as a memory) permanently attach themselves to places in my brain. There are songs that immediately transport me back to random bus rides in Colombia or rainy cafés in Budapest.

Playing computer or phone games always passes the time away if you just want to chill… and if you want something a little more interactive, you could even try casino games with a live dealer while waiting for the weather to clear up.

This is a fun thing to get your mind off the weather, instead of checking the weather app every 12 minutes, hoping the storm has magically stopped, and you can resume your plans.

Edit Photos and Videos From Your Trip

If you’ve been traveling for more than a few days, your camera roll is definitely going to be overflowing already!

Rainy days are the perfect excuse to finally sit down and sort through photos, organize folders, open Lightroom and make some photo edits or trip presets, edit videos, back things up properly, make albums, or decide which photos are actually worth posting and which ones are just 14 versions of the same plate of pasta or historic statues from slightly different angles (I am so guilty of this).

And “content” doesn’t only apply to creators either. Even if you’re not posting professionally, documenting trips properly is one of the best ways to hold onto memories later because eventually every destination starts blending together a little. You’ll end up looking at photos six months later trying to remember whether that cute café was in Lisbon or Mexico City.

It’s also a good time to finally send updates to your family because I swear every traveler tells their mom they’ll send photos regularly and then completely forgets once the trip gets busy.

And if you ARE a content creator, rainy days are elite editing days because at least you’re not sitting inside editing while the weather outside is perfect.

Get Ahead on Your Travel Planning

Rainy days are definitely good for finally sorting out all the logistical things you’ve been ignoring.

Use the downtime to figure out your train situation before prices randomly triple overnight (Looking at you, European trains… terrifying), sort out airport transport for your next destination, reserve restaurants or fill your to-do list, download offline maps, or finally work out how you’re getting across the country or continent.

To be honest, arriving somewhere new already having things semi-organized makes trips feel SO much less messy because you can actually enjoy being there instead of immediately stress-googling transportation while standing outside a station with your luggage.

Master a Few Useful Local Phrases

Rainy afternoons are also a pretty good time to finally learn how to pronounce some of the things you’ve been not-so-confidently saying wrong for the last week.

You obviously don’t need to become fluent overnight, but even learning a couple of phrases makes traveling feel more immersive and just makes you feel like a slightly better traveler. Ordering coffee or food properly, greeting shop owners correctly, saying thank you the right way, and asking for the bill are basic things that dont take a long time to learn.

Little things like that really make interactions feel warmer, and locals usually genuinely appreciate the effort in most places… Except maybe Paris 😛

Spend a Few Hours in a Café Reading, Journaling, and Longingly Looking Out the Window

One of my favorite rainy travel memories ever was sitting in a café in Budapest for like three hours because it was pouring outside and I refused to walk back to my hostel in it. I felt like I got stuck, but after a little while I realized it was actually a beautiful way to spend the afternoon. I actually cannot count how many afternoons during rainy season I have spent in Bali enjoying Canggu cafes while waiting out a storm or three.

I had every intention of journaling, working, writing, and being productive, but I mostly just drank coffee slowly and stared out the window watching people run through the rain. It makes for a magical setting to experience a place like this.

There’s something about rainy cafés while traveling that just hits differently. Especially when you’ve got a good window seat, ideally a view of some kind of a square or a jungle, and nowhere you urgently need to be for once.

Journal or Document Your Trip

At some point during long-term travel, every destination starts blurring together a little unless you remember to write about it while it’s happening.

You’ll see a photo later and genuinely struggle to remember what country it was taken in, or forget tiny moments that felt really important at the time. Weird conversations with strangers, songs playing in taxis, little restaurants you randomly wandered into because it started raining…

That’s why rainy days are perfect for journaling or writing things down while they’re still fresh in your brain. Write down the moments, the feelings, and the thoughts you had at the moment to really imprint them on your brain before they get washed away by the next experience. Journaling is something I really wish I had done more during my years of full time travel.

Even if you dont know what to write, something usually comes out once you start.

Make the Most of Your Accommodation’s Amenities

If you’re staying somewhere nice (or at a unique/boutique hotel or rental, which are my favorite), rainy weather is a pretty good excuse to actually enjoy it fully for once instead of just using it as a place to sleep.

Most of us spend so much time out exploring while traveling that we barely even see the hotel properly, so this is the time to finally check out the rooftop bar, spa, sauna, café, gym, lounge, library, or whatever else the property has hidden away somewhere.

Cabins, jungle villas, mountain lodges, little boutique hotels surrounded by trees, or even luxurious rooms somehow feel liek 40% more cinematic in the rain. Today, your life is a movie – romanticize it.

Book a Massage or Spa Day

What better time for a massage than after walking 10 miles a day around a new city? Especially in places like Southeast Asia, rainy days are basically made for spa afternoons, but truly these days you can find affordable massages almost anywhere if you spend a little time looking around.

I’ve randomly found great massage places in Barcelona, Tbilisi, Mexico, and more… they’re available pretty much everywhere, but you have to look harder for more affordable ones if you want that. Usually, there’s some small Thai or Indonesian massage spot hidden between cafés and convenience stores with way better prices than the giant luxury spas.

You just have to compare reviews a little, look around, and see what packages people recommend.

Spend the Day at a Museum

Most destinations usually have at least one or two museums… some of which you may not have known about or seen unless it started raining. These are perfect to hide out while the storm is at its peak! Rainy days are the perfect excuse to finally learn more about the history, art, or culture of wherever you’re visiting that you may not have learned about otherwise. If you’re in a big city, maybe you’ll notice some other museums that weren’t on your radar before.

And once you start searching for more indoor activities, you realize there are often way more than you originally thought. Galleries, libraries, castles, aquariums, cultural centers, old theaters, indoor markets…

Some of my favorite travel memories have come from museums I only entered because it started raining.

Try Other Indoor Activities

If museums aren’t typically your thing (although I recommend pushing yourself out of your comfort zone a bit for them), rainy days are also good for things like cooking classes, bookstores, wine tastings, indoor markets, pottery workshops, cocktail bars, live music venues, or even going to a movie theater can be a different experience abroad.

There’s something really fun about doing completely normal everyday activities in another country because even simple things feel very different when you’re traveling – even walking through a grocery store and looking at the different products there.

Actually Rest

I swear a lot of travelers – myself very much included – are pretty terrible at actually resting.

There’s so much pressure to maximize every second of a trip that people feel weirdly guilty slowing down, even when they’re exhausted, but rainy days are honestly the perfect excuse to sleep in, take a nap, watch movies in bed, order dessert for absolutely no reason, listen to the storm outside for a while, and recharge a little before throwing yourself back into nonstop travel mode again the next day.

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What is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day while traveling? Let me know if I missed any in the comments below!