April Showers: 10 Ways to Spend a Rainy Day Abroad

Seasons differ across ASA destinations, but inevitably, you’ll find yourself with a few rainy days to fill while you're abroad. While it might be tempting to stay in bed and scroll TikTok, a rainy day is actually a great excuse to experience your study abroad city in a slightly different way than usual.

Here are 10 of our favorite ways to pass the time on a rainy day when we’re traveling:

1. MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES. With the rain tapping against your window, it’s the perfect day to explore some of the indoor spaces you’ve had on your to-do list. Depending on where you’re studying, you’re likely to find some free options too, or at least some student discounts. In London, for example, almost all of the best museums and galleries are free to browse. If you’re in Florence, the Uffizi Gallery can keep you entertained for quite a few hours. Or if there’s a quirky niche museum tucked away on a side street that you keep meaning to step into, now’s the time!

2. CINEMA. Catching a movie in your study abroad city is an experience in itself. Check out the local cinemas and see if there are movies playing in the native language (if applicable) with subtitles and challenge yourself to follow along. If you’re in a big city, you’ll likely find theaters showing international movies in English too. Choose a snack that’s popular locally—churros with hot chocolate, anyone?—and treat yourself to an hour or two of big-screen bliss. 

3. COVERED MARKETS. Depending on your location, you might have a covered market nearby where you can find all sorts of treasures like homemade crafts to pick up as souvenirs or vintage clothes to try on. You could even do a little food crawl to sample different local tastes with your friends. In Madrid, you try Mercado de San Miguel. In London, Borough Market or Covent Garden Market are great options. Check out Mercado de San Telmo in Buenos Aires. Newcastle's Grainger Market is also an exciting find. 

4. LIBRARIES AND BOOKSHOPS. If you’re a bookworm, hooray! A rainy day is the perfect excuse to spend some time browsing the shelves. Head to a local library or visit some of the best bookshops in town to find the perfect read for your next plane ride. Many libraries also have reading nooks where you can cozy up for a few hours. And if you’re visiting bookshops, choose one with a cafe attached so you can while away an afternoon digging into the first few chapters over a coffee.

5. BAKING OR COOKING. If you’re adventurous in the kitchen, and you have one available to you, challenge yourself—along with some friends for a fun-filled afternoon—to try to recreate the tastiest local dish you’ve discovered so far on your trip. If you don’t have ingredients, see point two above first. If you live with a host family, this is an amazing opportunity to engage with one of your host parents and ask them to teach you to make their favorite family recipe.       

6. CULTURAL CLASSES. Call around and see if you can find an opening to join in on a last-minute cultural class that’s in line with your interests—perhaps a sculpture workshop, a flamenco dance session, or a pasta-making class—with a friend or two and make some memories while you’re learning something new.

7. LANGUAGE PRACTICE. Challenge yourself to spend the day as immersed in the local language as possible. Put on a movie, podcast, or music in the local language, join a language meet-up group if you can find one running, head to a cafe and try to understand the conversations around you (in a respectful way), and see if you can strike up at least one conversation with, for example, a barista, or a shop employee.

8. JOURNAL. Your time abroad will fly by quicker than you expect, and you’ll inevitably look back and wish you had captured as many of the small details as possible so you can re-live the most precious experiences for years to come. Sit down somewhere comfortable and do some writing (or drawing, or voice notes), about the highs, the challenges, the funny cultural mix-ups, and even the smallest details: what your walk to school was like every day, some things that surprised you, or what you’ve been eating. Try to pull in as many sensory details as you can—the smells, the sounds, etc. so you can recall these moments more vividly later.

9. A STUDY DAY. Though every day is also full of novel experiences, you’re still abroad primarily to study. What better than a rainy day to power through your assignments, crack on with your reading, or prep for an upcoming exam? You could stay home, or take your books to a cafe or the library for a change in scenery. Future you will be thrilled that you have more free time when the sun comes out again.

10. ADVENTURE PLANNING. If you’re staying in, gather your friends and plan your next adventure. This might be simply something you want to experience in your host city—a silent disco in a museum, a supper club, or a street art tour, for example—or maybe it’s planning your full spring break in another country. Take some time to research ticket prices, train routes, budget-friendly accommodation, and hidden gems to get yourself excited for your next move, or make a list of everything you still want to experience in your host city.

Rainy days don’t have to be boring, especially when you have so many new indoor places yet to explore. If you actually love a rainy day, as some of us do, grab an umbrella, capture some fun photos of iconic landmarks reflected in shiny surfaces, listen to the rain on tree branches in a peaceful park, enjoy the nearly-empty streets, and see your host city in a different light before heading back indoors to warm up with a hot drink!