You’ve arrived in NYC with your itinerary in hand. Everything is planned down to the minute. You leave your hotel excited to explore the city and…you feel a raindrop.
Don’t let the rain get you down. New York City is a great place when the weather limits your outdoor activities!
This post has 21 ideas of what to do in NYC on a rainy day.
As New Yorkers, our writers and local tour guides have dealt with countless rainy days over many years.
The below activities are among their favorites.
We also looked at suggestions from our popular New York City Travel Tips Facebook group.
Our group of over 225,000 members consists of locals, regular visitors, and newbies to NYC who are happy to share their advice with others.
Take a look at the bottom of this post and see what they had to say.
Then check out the group after you've read this post for loads more tips about visiting NYC!
1. Visit A Museum
Of course, this is the rainy day activity that first comes to mind. You likely had a museum or two on your list of things to do already!
Just juggle your daily itinerary a bit and you’ll have a great day despite the rain in NYC.
There are at least 35 museums in Manhattan alone.
Here are just a few of the top museums to visit:
- American Museum of Natural History
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
- 9/11 Museum and Memorial
- Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum
- Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- Guggenheim Museum
- Museum of Broadway
If you are concerned that you may run up a big tab with too many museum tickets, there are several options to save money on admission.
See our post on free museums and museums that offer free admission on certain days and times.
Also, admission to many of the top museums is included in NYC Tourist Attraction Passes which help you save money on admission.
2. Take A Bus Tour
This is one of the best rainy-day activities in NYC! You can do a hop-on-hop-off sightseeing tour fully guided, themed, and night tours.
Most companies have canvas tops for double-decker buses, so don't worry about exposure.
Check our post on New York Bus Tours to find out about the different types of tours you can take.
TIP: Many of the bus tours mentioned below are included in one form or another with the New York tourist passes.
3. See A Live TV Show Taping
Get out of the rain and into a seat for some great live entertainment like The Tonight Show or The View.
Some of the best daytime and late-night shows tape in New York and you can be part of the studio audience.
While some shows require ticket requests in advance, plenty of shows have standby tickets. It can't hurt to try, right?
See our post on TV Show Tapings in NYC.
4. Go To The Statue Of Liberty and Ellis Island
Don't let the rain scare you away from Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Ferries run rain or shine!
You will see Lady Liberty up close and you can visit the Statue of Liberty Museum.
Your ticket also includes a trip to Ellis Island and the National Museum of Immigration which for some is a more interesting part of the two-island trip.
Delve into the history of America’s great melting pot and look up your family roots!
Read more about visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
TIP: Follow up with a visit to the Tenement Museum and see how immigrants from the early 1900s lived.
5. Tour Grand Central Station
Touring the majestic Grand Central Station is just the thing you need to brighten up your rainy day in NYC! A visit here is one of the very best indoor activities!
Its expansive ceiling depicting the constellations of the zodiac and dazzling chandeliers will lift any rainy day blues.
Head downstairs to the food hall for delicious comfort food! Plus on the main concourse, there's a shopping plaza with 65 stores!
There are lots of tours offered and many of them are free to take. Find out more about Grand Central Terminal.
6. Take A Free Walking Tour
Our pay-what-you-wish walking tours run rain or shine and we have a few tours that are mostly indoors, such as our Grand Central Terminal Tour.
We offer guided tours of many different neighborhoods as well as food tours and seasonal holiday tours.
We run these tours on a daily (or almost daily) basis:
- SoHo, Little Italy, and Chinatown
- Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Heights + DUMBO
- Harlem
- Chelsea and the High Line
- 3 Hour Downtown Manhattan (Financial District, Soho, Little Italy & Chinatown)
- 6 Hour Downtown Combined
Our popular food tours include a Greenwich Village Food Tour and a Lower East Side Food Tour.
Find out about all our tour offerings here.
7. Check Out The New York Public Library
Walk inside and you can already feel the warmth of leather-bound books filling grand oak bookcases inside this historic library housed in a gorgeous Beaux-arts building.
The library offers free tours, making a visit here a great rainy day activity!
After the tour, save some time to explore on your own and see the Rotunda’s dark walnut paneling and vaulted ceiling murals.
Find out about the New York City Public Library and come in from the rain!
8. Tour Radio City Music Hall
Take a tour of this lush, art-deco venue known for its leggy dance troupe, The Rockettes.
On your 75-minute tour of Radio City Music Hall, you will get a behind-the-scenes peek at the Great Stage and more. You will even meet a Rockette.
9. Take The NBC Studio Tour
While we are on the topic of TV, see where the magic is made on a studio tour at NBC in Rockefeller Center. Find out more about NBC Studios Tours.
Note that due to the pandemic, tours ceased operating but that could change at any time. It’s worth seeing if tours have resumed when you are here and stuck in the rain.
10. See A Broadway Show
This may have been on your list of things to do already, but a rainy night in NYC makes the theater all that more appealing!
Some shows have matinees so head in for some musical fun on a rainy afternoon. Maybe “Singin’ in the Rain” will be in town.
You can save a lot on tickets if you know how. Read our post on how to get cheap Broadway tickets.
11. Go Shopping
The shopping in NYC is fabulous and it’s a good excuse to get out of the rain!
One of our all-time favorite stores is Century 21 in Lower Manhattan. The store sells men's, women's, and children's apparel and shoes, plus handbags, accessories, fragrances, and luggage -- at affordable.
The store is probably best known for extremely marked-down prices for designer clothes.
Chances are you are going to leave the shop with one or two of its famous red bags!
Across the street from Century 21 is the Oculus mall with more than 60 retail shops.
It's adjacent to the 9/11 Museum and Memorial so combine your time shopping, then seeing the museum.
Other popular options are famous department stores like Saks 5th Avenue and Macy's.
Near High Line Park, there is the Chelsea Market, with shopping and great food stalls.
About 12 blocks north is the mall at Hudson Yards where the skyscraper Edge and its observatory deck are located.
If you want to spend a day shopping at an outlet, head to the Woodbury Commons, just an hour outside of New York City.
Read more about the best places to shop in NYC and where to shop to save money.
12. See a Movie
Hundreds of movies have taken place in New York City, so why not see a movie here?
In a city with so many tastes, you’ll have no trouble finding a movie that suits yours.
Plus, many of the city’s theaters are high quality. The sound systems are superb and the seats are comfy.
You can even dine and have drinks at the Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theater in the Financial District.
For blockbusters, try the AMC Lincoln Square 13 with the largest IMAX screen in the U.S.! It's on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
The Regal Theater in Times Square has over 15 screens!
For arthouse and independent movies head to the IFC Theater in Greenwich Village and Film Forum in SoHo.
13. Visit the United Nations
Unlike visiting museums or tourist attractions, visiting the United Nations can only be done in New York City.
There’s simply nothing like it anywhere in the world. See where some of the most important decisions affecting the entire world are made.
The UN tours are very informative and engaging. If you are traveling with children they have a special kids tour that is interactive.
Read all the details on how to reserve tickets to visit the United Nations and what you can expect to see on your visit here.
14. Have a Good Laugh at a Comedy Club
Cheer up those rainy-day blues with a comedy show! One of the top spots for comedy is The Comedy Cellar at 117 MacDougal St. Top comedians like Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Aziz Ansari, have performed here.
Each show includes between five to seven 20-minute sets by different comedians. This means that you've got more chances to see at least a few sidesplitting sets!
15. Play an Escape Room
Just because it’s raining doesn't mean you can't have an adventure! At The Escape Game New York you’ll be challenged to escape a ‘locked’ room by cracking codes and deciphering clues.
So put on your detective hat and get ready to solve a mystery!
This is a great indoor activity for adults traveling without kids and also for families. Plus it's open day and night, so whatever time it’s raining, you can head on over!
16. Get Active at Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers is a 150,000-square-foot gym at Pier 60 (20th Street and Hudson River Park) that has loads of activities to get your heart pumping and feeling good on a rainy day.
One of the most popular offerings is the golf driving range. Another is the year-round ice skating rink.
You can also try indoor rock climbing! two other indoor rock climbing facilities to check out are Brooklyn Boulders and The Cliffs at LIC both in Long Island City, easily reached from Manhattan or Brooklyn by subway.
Feel like bowling? Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn and Bowlero in Times Square both have state-of-the-art bowling alleys.
17. Get cozy at an NYC Bookstore
New York City has some wonderful independent bookstores that are perfect to wander around on a rainy day. The most famous of the independent shops is the Strand Bookstore.
Other nice bookstores are Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, The Corner Bookstore on the Upper East Sidey Rizzoli Bookstore in the Flatiron District.
18. Attend a Basketball Game
Rainy weather in NYC can turn those who don't care much for basketball into believers!
Basketball season is from mid-October to mid-April so if you are in the city between those months, and rain is in the forecast see if a game is on.
You can choose either the New York Knicks who play home games at Madison Square Garden or the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. It’s even better when the two teams play each other!
19. Hear the Symphony at Lincoln Center
As home to the renowned New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center is a destination for those who adore the symphony. Use the ran as an excuse to see your favorite Mahler or Mozart!
If you want to see a symphony concert, see the schedule here.
Lincoln Center also houses the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, has a theater with top shows, a film series, and so much more.
If you want to know behind the scenes, you can take a Lincoln Center Tour.
20. Fly Above the City at RiseNY
RiseNY is one of New York City’s most popular attractions and for good reason. A trip here lets you see so much of the city in one indoor location - perfect for a rainy day.
The highlight of RiseNY is The Ride. This unique experience features a state-of-the-art ‘flying theater’ that takes riders across New York City for a bird’s eye view.
Other exhibits are interactive galleries with artifacts from top NYC museums and a film on the timeline of New York watched from inside a replica of NYC’s first subway station at City Hall.
Ticket Prices (includes tax & fees)
- Adult $36.29 (Age 13+)
- Children $31.30 (Age 3-12)
- Infants 2 and under not allowed
- More information and to purchase tickets.
21. Take a Hot Tub Boat Tour
Climb aboard a 40’ yacht, fitted with two jacuzzis covered by a canopy! Relax in the warm water in your hot tub while seeing the skyline from the water. It's like being at a spa with a view!
Come with friends or just two of you to experience this unique NYC activity -- rain or shine!
Find out more here.
TIPS FROM LOCALS AND TRAVELERS
Here is what locals and travelers who are members of our New York Travel Tips group on Facebook had to say about how to spend a rainy day in New York City.
You don't need to become a member to read the posts, comments, and advice.
So when you are done reading this post why not have a look? Perhaps even ask some questions yourself!
Museums were a hit with our group members. Here are some they liked the most.
Lauren made the rain work to her advantage, as did Rae.
Some other rainy day activities that group members endorsed.
These comments below may be the best advice of all. Don't let the rain stop you!
So grab an umbrella and go for it!
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