What to Do on a Rainy Day in Crete

Crete gets roughly 300 sunny days a year, which is why so many people book here. It still rains - mostly between November and March, occasionally in the shoulder months, and almost never in July or August. When it does, the island has more to offer indoors than most Mediterranean destinations, because so much of what is interesting here was never outdoors to begin with.

Go underground

Caves are the one category of attraction that does not care what the sky is doing. Crete has thousands, and several are set up for visitors.

• Melidoni Cave, in the Rethymno region, is both a natural formation and a memorial - hundreds of villagers sheltering here died during the Ottoman period, and the cave is treated as a monument as much as a geological site.
• Sfendoni Cave at Zoniana, on the slopes of Psiloritis, is one of the best-decorated show caves in Greece, with an extensive walkway through stalactite and stalagmite chambers.
• Psychro Cave on the Lasithi Plateau, also called the Dikteon Andron, is the cave that mythology names as Zeus's birthplace. It involves a steep walk up and back.

All three are cool and damp regardless of the weather, so the rain outside makes no difference.

Monasteries and churches

Crete's monasteries are substantial complexes, and most of what you go to see is under a roof or behind a wall. Arkadi, about 23 km south-east of Rethymno, is the most significant: a Venetian-facade church, a museum, and a national symbol because of the 1866 explosion during the revolt against Ottoman rule. Rain suits it.

Smaller chapels and monasteries are scattered everywhere and make good morning stops before you decide what the weather is doing.

Museums and the archaeological sites you can still do

The Heraklion Archaeological Museum holds the Minoan collections - the frescoes, the Phaistos Disc, the figurines - and is entirely indoors. It takes two hours minimum and pairs naturally with Knossos, which is open-air but partly roofed, and considerably more pleasant without the summer heat.

Rethymno and Chania both have archaeological and historical-folklore museums that give useful context on the Venetian and Ottoman periods, and both cities have small galleries.

Wineries and olive mills

Crete produces serious wine and very good olive oil, and visiting a producer is an indoor activity with a tasting attached. There are wineries around Alagni, south of Heraklion, and across the Heraklion wine country, where you can taste indigenous Cretan varieties - vidiano, vilana, kotsifali, liatiko - and see how they are made. Olive mills in the Rethymno region do the same for oil, and the pressing season in late autumn and winter is exactly when the weather is worst, which is convenient.

Learn to cook

A cooking class is the best possible use of a wet afternoon: it is indoors, it lasts several hours, it ends in a meal, and it gives you something to take home. Most classes on the island start with the garden or the market and finish at a table.

Craft workshops

Margarites, in the Rethymno region, is a working pottery village. The studios are indoors, the kilns are running, and buying directly from the maker is normal. It is a genuinely good rainy-day stop and pairs with Arkadi and Melidoni in a single loop.

The old towns still work in rain

Rethymno and Chania are both dense enough that rain is manageable. The lanes are narrow, awnings and covered cafes are everywhere, and the Venetian stonework looks better wet than dry. Chania's Venetian harbour is one of the most photographed places in Crete and is arguably more atmospheric under cloud. In Rethymno the Fortezza is exposed, so save that for a clear afternoon and spend the wet hours in the old town instead.

Or do nothing at all

If you have a villa or an apartment with a view, the correct answer is sometimes to stop. Open a bottle of Cretan wine, put out cheese, olives and bread, and let the afternoon go. The rain usually passes within a few hours, and you go back outside having had the rest you were not going to schedule.

A loop that works in bad weather

From Rethymno: Arkadi Monastery, then Margarites for pottery and lunch, then Melidoni Cave on the way back. Roughly a half to three-quarter day, almost entirely under cover, and no worse in rain than in sun.