The Very Best Ways to Enjoy a Rainy Vacation

Here's what I do to turn lemons into lemonade.

By
Published July 17, 2025
illustration of weekend weather forecast, enjoying vacation with rainy weather
Kaitlin Brito

As we were packing last winter for a trip to Cabo San Lucas, my daughter, Alliana, wanted to know which bathing suit to bring. “The blue one,” I said, though I was really thinking, “Why bother?” Soon It’s Gonna Rain. To me, that’s more than a song from The Fantasticks, it’s the story of my life.

Do you think I’m exaggerating? Thirty years ago, I moved to Ibiza, off the coast of Spain. “The White Island, 300 days of sunshine,” read the brochures. I can do the math. I realized that meant 65 days of precipitation. But what are the odds that they’d be consecutive?

So while I might, understandably, forget to pack sunscreen, I never leave home without a guide to places slightly off the beaten track.

In Paris, we took refuge from a downpour by ducking into Sainte Chapelle, the church in the courtyard of the Palais de Justice, where we stumbled upon a fabulous chamber music concert.

It was a near-hurricane that persuaded my architect husband, Martin, and me to go on a bus tour of the Miami Deco district. Bad weather in Belize forced us to abandon the soggy beaches of Ambergris Caye and head inland for an unscheduled trip to Chaa Creek, a nature reserve near the Mayan mountains. There, we indulged in luxurious massages at a spa nestled high in the treetops.

At dinner, as I took a sip of an exotic-sounding drink called Sky Juice, I laughed when the waiter explained that “It’s rainwater.”

Still, not all of our adventures had us, er, singing in the rain. While thunder and lightning scared others away, we resisted canceling our boat trip to George Washington’s Mount Vernon home in Virginia. Once we were there, I tried to convince my family that trudging through the mud was “a pioneer experience.”

A teenage Alliana just saw it as a good way to ruin a perfectly good pair of Uggs. And when we were stuck on a Northern California dude ranch with rainstorms so violent that horseback riding was impossible, we headed off to a nearby faux Danish tourist trap where the fake windmills and greasy grits we ate weren’t nearly as charming in person as they appeared in the Academy Award-nominated movie Sideways.

Yet it’s not just the serendipity of rainy days — good and bad — that I’ve learned to live with; it’s the reduced stress of “getting out and having fun” that, in my best moments, I embrace. When it’s raining, you’re not feeling pressured to enjoy the sunny day. You can cuddle up with a book indoors.

Extended periods of rain can darken moods due to reduced sunlight, which disrupts melatonin production, and if this leads to depression, you should, of course, consult a doctor. But for me, the sunny side of a couple of days of showers is that I don’t feel guilty binge-watching The Gilmore Girls. It can also be a chance to explore your creativity, to fool around with paints, start that memoir you’ve been meaning to write or fiddle with the Etch-A-Sketch you brought along for your grandkids.

Sharing an iced tea with a friend at an outdoor café in New York last fall, with my hair frizzing from the dripping overhanging awning, I felt strangely content. We ditched our plans for a shopping trip, switched to wine and whiled away several hours talking and laughing.

I also have fond memories of family vacations when we tried our best to turn lemons into lemonade. When Alliana was a preschooler, I watched her and her dad, Martin, sit in their rain slickers on a beach in New Jersey under an umbrella while they built muddy sand castles.

After four stormy days in Charleston, Rhode Island, a few summers later, we got into the car and drove an hour to the Pequot Museum. Was sitting inside a real tepee as exciting as jumping waves in the Atlantic? (This is a rhetorical question, Dear Reader.) Still, it got us out of the house.

So send in the clouds, and let the thunder roll. I’m determined not to be a wet blanket on waterlogged vacations. The only thing I can’t figure out is how to get my fair-weather friends to trust me and come along on a vacation. With my track record, all but the hardiest are wary of weathering a vacation with me.

Four rules for traveling in stormy weather:

· Always bring along a couple of good books (preferably loaded on your Kindle for easy transport).

· Before the trip, Google “Things to do on a Rainy Day” for your destination. Print out or save the info to your phone, just in case you need it.

· Traveling with grandkids? Keep a Travel Journal — every day, have them draw a picture and/or write a sentence or two about the trip. Older kids can take pictures on their phones; if they’re younger, let them take photos on your phone, which you’ll print out later to paste into their journals. They just might surprise you and be “inspired," rather than darkened by the wet weather, talking about how they got to take a “rain walk." Hearing and seeing things through a child’s perspective is a perk for you, too!

· Get a cheerful umbrella. Mine is black — until I open it and am greeted with a canopy of blue skies with white fluffy clouds. It never fails to make me smile.

Also, check out these six steps for planning a successful vacation with an older parent.

Has bad weather ever ruined a vacation for you? Let us know in the comments below.

Lynn Schnurnberger is a bestselling author, longtime contributor to major national publications, frequent TV guest, former NBC talk show producer, and founder of Foster Pride, a nonprofit empowering youth in foster care through mentoring and the arts.