7 things to do when it rains on your vacation

7 Things to Do When It Rains on Your Vacation As much as we hope for perfect weather on our vacation, Mother Nature is beyond our control, and it’s bound to rain on our plans. It’s easy to get frustrated and allow the rain clouds to ruin our vacation.

But a little rain shouldn’t spoil your fun. With a dash of creativity, some tweaks to your itinerary, and just a bit of pouting, it’s possible to enjoy a rainy afternoon as much as a sunny afternoon. Try one of these fun suggestions.

1. Visit a Food Market / Supermarket Many food markets are indoors, like the one we visited in Chiang Mai. We spent hours getting to know local produce and eating fried bugs. If there isn’t an indoor food market, head to the grocery store for an equally rich food experience. Turn the excursion into a language

lesson by learning new food words from the product placards.

2. Read a Book On a recent trip to the Riviera Maya, a rainy afternoon forced us indoors. We sat on our balcony lost in our books to the soothing sounds of splashing waves and sprinkling rain. If you need out of your room, most hotels, B&Bs, etc. have public spaces to curl up in. As an alternative, head to a local coffee shop or wine bar to waste away the afternoon with your work

of literature while you yourself are wasting away. If you’re out of reading material, see if the hotel has a guest library. It’s a great way to get turned onto a new author.

3. Find a Spa I don’t know how many times I’ve been on vacation and find myself getting a massage inside a spa on a sunny day. How ridiculous does that sound? I travelled for the sun and beach, yet spend an afternoon or morning indoors at a spa when there are plenty back home that I could visit. The last time I was at

the beach, I chose to do a massage on a rainy morning beachside under a thatched hut. With the crashing surf and piddling raindrops, it was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life.

4. Head to a Bar and Get Drunk And not your lobby bar or a tourist trap like a Hard Rock Cafe. Ask the hotel staff for their favorite watering hole, even if it’s across town or island. Hop a cab, then kick back with locals over pints or boat drinks and make new friends.

5. Play in the Rain Whether we were fortunate or unfortunate to catch high water in Venice has yet to be determined. However, as the canals flooded over into the streets, shops, restaurants, and squares, many tourists flocked to the streets to play in the rain. Saint Mark’s Square transitioned to a public swimming pool as revelers splashed around.

6. Visit a Museum If you’re in Europe, you’re going to a museum anyway.

Look ahead at the forecast and place the museum excursion on a rainy day. Save the sunny afternoon for a neighborhood walking tour. Bonus points if you find an off-the-beaten path museum. With all the famous museums in Rome like the Museo Etrusco, Galleria Borghese, and Museo Nazionale Romano, we ended up at Galleria Doria Pamphilj, a family mansion where relics of saints were on display in the living room.

7. Take a Cooking Class Words won’t do justice to how awesome those stuffed grape leaves were as you describe them to friends back home. How about learning to make them yourself? With a little research, you’ll find that most tourist destinations have at least one cooking school catering to vacationers. From Thailand to Italy, some of the most fun we have on vacation are in cooking classes. (And in the bars mentioned in tip number four…)