What to do in Gran Canaria when it rains: plans to save your day
Gran Canaria is famous for sunshine, and in the south it has earned that reputation. But the north and the capital know grey days well, and every now and then a proper downpour rolls in. For those days the island has a plan B that is no consolation prize: museums you can take your time over, a cave painted by the ancient Canarians, a huge aquarium, food markets with a bar, and a rum distillery. Plus a trick the locals use without thinking, which we save for the end.
One distinction first: this guide is for an ordinary grey day. If there is a heavy rain warning, you need a different plan, and we explain it in Heavy rain in the Canary Islands: what to do.
Did you know? In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the grey sky over the north has its own name: panza de burro, the donkey's belly. It is the layer of low cloud brought in by the trade wind, and it clings to the north and north-east coast. On the other side of the central peaks, in the south, the sun is usually still shining.
Museums for curious minds of all ages
If you wake up to grey skies in Las Palmas, you are in the town with more museums than anywhere else on the island. The Museo Elder de la Ciencia y la Tecnología, the science museum in Parque Santa Catalina, fills four floors with hands-on exhibits: a planetarium, a 3D cinema with daily documentaries in Spanish and English, simulators and an F-5 fighter jet that shows you what a plane looks like inside. Here you are meant to touch everything. It is closed on Mondays.
In Vegueta, the district where the city was born, three museums sit a few steps apart. The Casa de Colón devotes its rooms to Columbus's stops in the islands, the Canaries' role in the voyages to America, pre-Columbian cultures and map-making. Entry is free on Sundays, and since 20 October 2026 it closes on Tuesdays. El Museo Canario is the great museum of the ancient Canarians: eleven rooms on how they lived, their settlements, their idols and pintaderas (clay seals) and their funeral customs, mummification included. It opens on Mondays too, though only in the mornings at weekends. And the CAAM, the Atlantic Centre of Modern Art, has free entry and contemporary art exhibitions in a historic building on Calle Los Balcones. It is closed on Mondays.
A tip for Mondays, when so many museums close: El Museo Canario, the Casa de Colón and the Poema del Mar aquarium are all still open. To explore the whole district, cathedral and streets included, see What to see in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and you will find every museum on the island in our guide to museums in Gran Canaria.
Caves, archaeology and the island from the inside
Rain is a good excuse to meet the island's first inhabitants. In Gáldar, in the north, the Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada protects a pre-Hispanic village of about sixty structures, and at its heart the chamber with painted walls that gives the museum its name. The visit starts in the museum rooms, with audiovisual displays that run from the last days of pre-Hispanic society to the discovery of the cave, and continues through the village, where several houses have been rebuilt at full size, doors, roofs and walls included.
The visit is guided. Tours in Spanish leave every half hour, and there are daily tours in English, German and French. To protect the site, numbers are limited, so buy your ticket on the official website before you go. Entry is free on Sundays, but those tickets are collected at the museum on the day itself, with no booking, until it is full. It is closed on Mondays.
If you want more, we tell the story of the cave and the people who painted it in The Cueva Pintada and the ancient Canarians.
Aquariums, animals and plans with children
The big indoor plan with kids in Las Palmas is Poema del Mar, the aquarium in the port. The route is divided into three zones, jungle, tropical and deep ocean, and it has a huge curved window that, according to the aquarium itself, is the largest in the world. It opens every day of the year, Mondays included, and tickets are sold on its website. Opening times can change, so check them before you set off.
The other safe bet with little ones is the Museo Elder, which we mentioned above: between the planetarium and the simulators, a rainy morning flies by.
Food, markets and neighbourhood life
A rainy day is also a good day for a long, slow meal. The Mercado de Vegueta, which its own website calls the first market built in the Canary Islands, back in the 19th century, opens on weekday and Saturday mornings, with fresh produce arriving every day and the feel of a real neighbourhood market. In Santa Catalina, the Mercado del Puerto has two sides: food stalls in the morning, and the gastro stalls at lunchtime and in the evening, which are closed on Mondays.
About twenty minutes' drive west, in Arucas, the Destilerías Arehucas rum distillery opens its doors for a visit of around an hour: the history of the company, the mill and the fermentation and distillation rooms, the bottling plant and, at the end, a tasting of rums and liqueurs for adults. According to its website you do not need to book, but mind the calendar: it opens Monday to Friday, in the mornings (on Fridays the afternoon too), and it is closed at weekends and on public holidays. If you are driving, leave the tasting to someone else.
For a different kind of evening, the Gabinete Literario in Las Palmas, the building that was the city's first theatre, hosts Candlelight concerts, played by candlelight. You will find the dates and tickets in the Gran Canaria events calendar, together with the week's other concerts and indoor activities.
And if you are staying in the south
Many visitors stay in Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés or Mogán, and there is shelter there too on a wet day. Holiday World Maspalomas has a bowling alley that opens every day, four escape rooms with different levels of difficulty, and karaoke. The escape rooms and the karaoke run in the afternoon and not every day of the week, so check the website before you go. And many hotels have a spa or a heated pool, a plan that feels even better under a grey sky.
And if the south wakes up grey too, think the other way round: the capital and its museums are about 50 kilometres away on the GC-1 motorway.
The local trick: change islands without leaving the island
Gran Canaria is often called a continent in miniature, and the weather proves the point: the donkey's belly clings to the north and north-east, and once you cross the central peaks to the south, you usually leave it behind. That is why the best answer to a grey day in Las Palmas is often not to stay indoors, but to get in the car and drive south. From the capital to Maspalomas it is about 50 kilometres on the GC-1, under an hour without traffic. We explain why it happens, with data, in Canary Islands microclimates: why the weather changes in 20 kilometres, and if you arrive in the mood for sand, here are the best beaches in Gran Canaria.
Two exceptions. With a heavy rain warning, no driving around for fun: what to do in that case is in our heavy rain guide. And if what covers the sky is dust rather than cloud, that is calima, and it has its own rules: Calima in the Canary Islands: what to do.
So rain stops being a problem and becomes an excuse: to step into a cave painted centuries ago, taste rum where it is distilled, or drive half an hour to find the sun. And if you are visiting Tenerife too, it has its own plan B: What to do in Tenerife when it rains.
Find all these places, with their location, opening times and how to get there, on islas24.info.
Sources: Museo Elder de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (museoelder.es); Cabildo de Gran Canaria: the websites of the Casa de Colón and the Museo y Parque Arqueológico Cueva Pintada, and the official tourism website grancanaria.com; El Museo Canario (elmuseocanario.com); Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (caam.net); Poema del Mar (poema-del-mar.com); Mercado de Vegueta and Mercado del Puerto (official websites); Destilerías Arehucas (arehucas.es); Holiday World Maspalomas (holidayworldmaspalomas.com). Opening times checked on 26 October 2026.
Cover image: islas24 map based on data © OpenStreetMap contributors.