What to Do in Rio When It Rains

Rain in Rio

Rio's wettest stretch runs from December to April, the months in which the city's weather service, Alerta Rio, has recorded its most extreme rainfall totals. Most days still stay dry.

On the INMET normals for the city's weather station, January and December each average about 11 days with at least 1 mm of rain, March about eight and February about seven. In winter the count drops to about four days in July and five in August, so one indoor plan kept in reserve covers most weeks.

From autumn into winter the city can also get cold fronts moving up from Antarctica. When the forecast shows one, swap the beach day for one of the plans below and make the call over breakfast.

Choosing a plan

Start with how far you want to go. Fashion Mall, with its cinema, is in São Conrado itself, Gávea, with the planetarium and a second cinema, is a short drive away, and the centre and the port, each about 20 km by road, make a full day out.

With children, AquaRio and the planetarium are the surest picks, and children up to five are reported to enter the Museu do Amanhã free. At the cinema, legendado means the original soundtrack with Portuguese subtitles and dublado means dubbed into Portuguese, so English-speaking children want the legendado sessions.

Opening days matter more when the plan changes at breakfast. On a wet Wednesday the Museu do Amanhã is closed, while AquaRio and the CCBB are open, and the Theatro Municipal and the Biblioteca Nacional run their weekday visits.

Sunday is quieter in the centre: the Real Gabinete and the library visits stop for the weekend, and the CCBB and the Paço Imperial stay open. Start with the 10:00 mass sung in Gregorian chant at the Mosteiro de São Bento, then head to the port, where the Museu do Amanhã and AquaRio open as usual, or come back to Fashion Mall, where the shops open at 14:00 on Sundays.

At the villa

A wet day is a good excuse to hand the kitchen to the private chef. Ask the concierge the evening before, so the chef can shop the morning markets and plan a long lunch or a slow dinner for the whole group. Dinner at the villa gives a feel for the evening.

On a warm day a light shower does not have to end a swim in the long mosaic pool. Get out at the first rumble of thunder and wait until it has passed. The glass pavilion, with its walls slid shut, is the place to sit it out.

Rain also makes a good day to stay in: a late breakfast in the pavilion, a long lunch, an afternoon with a book while cloud settles over Pedra da Gávea behind the house. With five suites, everyone has somewhere quiet when the group wants to split up for an hour.

Fashion Mall

The closest indoor plan is in São Conrado itself. Fashion Mall, on Estrada da Gávea, has a Kinoplex cinema and a theatre, and its shops open from 10:00 to 22:00 Monday to Saturday and from 14:00 to 20:00 on Sundays. It is in the same neighbourhood as the villa, which makes it an easy afternoon between showers. Shopping near São Conrado covers it and the other malls nearby.

Gávea

The city's planetarium opened in Gávea on 19 November 1970, on Rua Vice-Governador Rubens Berardo. It has two domes, the Carl Sagan, 23 metres across with 263 seats, and the smaller Galileu Galilei, 12.5 metres across with 90 seats, plus the Museu do Universo with about 60 hands-on experiments.

Dome sessions follow a programme that the planetarium publishes with times and prices, so check the week's schedule before you set out. Everyone is seated indoors under the dome, which makes it an easy plan for a group of mixed ages.

Nearby, the Estação Claro cinema has five screens on Rua Marquês de São Vicente. Check its listings for legendado (subtitled) and dublado (dubbed) sessions.

The Instituto Moreira Salles has its Rio home in the former Moreira Salles family house in Gávea, designed in 1948 by Olavo Redig de Campos, with gardens by Roberto Burle Marx. The house is closed for renovation at present and the IMS Rio programme is being shown at partner cultural venues, so look at the IMS site before you go. Instituto Moreira Salles has the full guide.

Museu do Amanhã and AquaRio

At Praça Mauá, the Museu do Amanhã is a visit under a roof from start to finish. It opens from Thursday to Tuesday, 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:00, and it is closed on Wednesdays. Children up to five and people over 60 are reported to enter free, and national holidays are free too, so check the museum's site for current ticket rules; Museu do Amanhã and Praça Mauá sets out the whole day. The Museu de Arte do Rio stands on the same square, and its website has carried a notice that it is temporarily closed, so confirm with the museum before you include it.

AquaRio, a short ride further along the port, opened in 2016 and bills itself as the largest marine aquarium in South America. It is open daily from 9:00 to 17:00, with the last visitors admitted at 16:00, and buying online saves money. A tunnel runs through the middle of its great ocean tank, which makes it a good wet-day plan with children.

The historic centre

Rain is a good reason to see the Theatro Municipal from the inside. Its guided tours last about 45 minutes and run from Wednesday to Saturday, with an English option on some sessions. Tickets are sold at the box office on Avenida Treze de Maio on the day, so check the day's times on the theatre's website.

Close by, Confeitaria Colombo has been open since 1894, in a room lined with mirrors brought from Antwerp, under the stained-glass skylight of the tea room added in 1922. Its hours vary through the week, so check before you go.

The Biblioteca Nacional, on Cinelândia, runs free guided visits on weekdays at set times (11:00 to 16:00 on its 2026 schedule), lasting about 30 minutes and booked in advance on the library's website; visitors without a Brazilian CPF can book by email. The library's page says the bag lockers take a R$ 1 coin. Next door, the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is reopening in stages after a long renovation, so check which galleries are open.

Nearby, the CCBB keeps its galleries open from 9:00 to 20:00 every day except Tuesday, and the Paço Imperial shows free exhibitions from noon, Tuesday to Sunday. The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, whose reading room holds about 350,000 volumes under an iron-framed skylight, is usually open free on weekdays. Rio's Historic Centre puts every stop in walking order.

Rainy evenings

A wet evening can still be a night out. The Theatro Municipal stages opera, ballet and concerts in a season that runs from March to December, and the theatre at Fashion Mall has its own programme of plays. Tickets for each batch of performances go on sale in advance, so book ahead if a particular night matters.

Or stay in. With the pavilion closed against the rain, a dinner cooked by the chef at the table for 12 is the easiest evening of the week, and the driver can collect anyone who went out to the cinema.

Getting around in the rain

Allow extra time for any drive on a wet day and let the driver choose the route. In heavy rain or strong wind the city can close Avenida Niemeyer, the cliff road between São Conrado and Leblon, and traffic then runs through the Zuzu Angel and Acústico tunnels, which the driver will know. São Conrado also has its own station on Metro Line 4, which runs through Leblon to General Osório in Ipanema.

Alerta Rio's forecasts are the ones to check the evening before, and a day with heavy rain in them is the day for the chef and the cinema. Keep Pedra Bonita and Pedra da Gávea for a dry spell.