Did you remember to pack everyone’s rain gear?
With such unpredictable weather patterns these days, you never know when it’s going to rain on your vacation. If you are in the mountains, you can probably count on afternoon thunderstorms, but you can also get drenched at the beach, at theme parks (we memorably were stuck in a tropical storm at Walt Disney World once), in Hawaii, or while exploring a new city.
Travel insurance is a good idea, as it can cover flight delays and cancellations due to the weather, according to Meghan Walch, InsureMyTrip’s director of product. It might cover you for extra hotel nights, meals, or rebooking.
“If you’re looking to cancel before a trip because it’s going to be rainy the entire time, your best bet is Cancel for Any Reason coverage,” Walch said. According to her, this must be purchased soon after you put a deposit down, but it allows you the flexibility to cancel a trip at least 48 hours before departure for any reason and receive 50 percent to 75 percent reimbursement of your prepaid, nonrefundable trip costs.
Now there is also WeatherPromise, which has just partnered with Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy, making it the first global hotel company to help guests rainproof their vacation. Just as airlines ask if you want to add travel insurance when you book a flight, Marriott invites you to add WeatherPromise when you book a Homes & Villas trip.
WeatherPromise pays you if there is excessive rain. Each WeatherPromise offer balances price, triggers, and overall experience for your trip, automatically monitoring the weather using data from satellites, weather radar, and weather stations. The price depends on the specific location and season. Unlike travel insurance, WeatherPromise will compensate you if it rains enough to trigger a payout.
Of course, there are plenty of ways to have fun the old-fashioned way, despite bad weather. A rainy day is ideal for sleeping in, maybe having a room service breakfast if you are at a hotel, watching a movie together, or playing board games.
You’ve just got to be able to pivot. For example, say you are in Vermont and your hike or kayak trip gets rained out; there’s always the fun Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory tour in Waterbury. Factory Tours USA lists 540 different tours.
If you are in a big city, see if you can get tickets to a matinee performance of a touring production. We just saw the very funny “Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song,” a satirical roast of more than 30 Broadway hits with crazy costumes and silly spoofs, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. (The production is now touring around the country, with stops in cities such as Houston, Detroit, Dallas, and Costa Mesa, California.) Typically, tickets will cost less than on Broadway.
Then there are museums. If you are in Washington, the Smithsonian operates 17 museums plus the National Zoo. They are all free, although free entry passes are required at some, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Air and Space Museum, and the National Zoo.
In Denver, the Denver Art Museum (we love the Creative Hub with its hands-on art projects) and the interactive History Colorado Center are free for kids and teens.
In other cities, you may find that your annual passes to science, art, or children’s museums near your home will get you free admission.
Free or not, there is a wonderful array of new museum exhibits around the country this summer.
In San Francisco, the de Young Museum has just extended “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64” through Oct. 5. This exhibit offers a behind-the-scenes view of Beatlemania in more than 250 photos alongside video clips and archival materials.
In Boston, “The Art of Being Green” has opened at the Boston Children’s Museum. This exhibition, presented by Artists For Humanity, provides a platform for young artists to share their evolving voices and ideas. Each piece is accompanied by a statement from the artist, giving viewers a glimpse into his or her creative process and unique perspective. Museum visitors are invited to take inspiration from the green-themed artwork in the gallery and make their own temporary artwork on a magnet wall with shapes in various shades of green.
In New York City, there is a new Hayden Planetarium space show, “Encounters in the Milky Way,” the first to focus on the story of this cosmic motion and how it affects our solar system. Looking billions of years into the past and peering millions of years into the future, the show’s time-traveling journey is made possible by data from one of the most transformative astronomical projects of the past century.
Explore the life of Jane Goodall at the “Becoming Jane” exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. The exhibition explores Goodall’s life from her early years as an intrepid young woman with a dream to learn about animals in Africa, to her years establishing herself as a renowned scientist in Gombe, Tanzania, to her present role as an activist.
Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry is presenting “Mandela: The Official Exhibition“—an immersive experience that takes visitors on a journey through the life of Nelson Mandela and the global struggle for justice and human rights. The traveling exhibit features previously seen and unseen films, photographs, and artifacts on loan from the Mandela family and other museums.
Don’t discount smaller museums, either, such as the terrific Nantucket Whaling Museum on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, where you will learn what it was like to be part of the dangerous trade of 18th-century whaling. The Maui Ocean Center at the Aquarium of Hawaii features immersive exhibits, complete with an underwater tunnel that allows you to see Hawaiian broad stingrays and shark and fish species. And the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, boasts the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the United States.
You’ll want to see some of these, even if it’s sunny out.
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