Sydney When It Rains

Sydney gets more annual rainfall than London. That statistic surprises people every time, and it is true — the difference is that Sydney gets it in fewer, heavier bursts rather than in a steady grey drizzle. What that means for a visitor is that a wet day in Sydney is often a wet morning, and the single most useful skill is knowing what to do for four hours until it clears. It also means that when a genuine east coast low settles in, the city can rain solidly for two or three days, and you will want a real plan.

First, check whether it will actually last

Sydney rain frequently arrives as a band that passes through in a few hours. Before rearranging your whole day, look at the Bureau of Meteorology rain radar rather than a generic weather app — the radar shows you what is coming and roughly when it will clear, which a percentage-chance forecast does not.

If the radar shows a passing band, plan an indoor morning and keep the afternoon flexible. If it shows a large system sitting off the coast, treat the whole day as indoors and plan accordingly.

The museums and galleries

The Art Gallery of New South Wales. Free permanent collection, and since the second building opened, one of the better gallery experiences in Australia. The Australian and Aboriginal collections are the reason to go. Easily three hours, and it sits beside the Botanic Gardens for when it clears.

The Australian Museum. Natural history, dinosaurs, and a serious First Nations collection. The strongest option if you have children, and covered in our Sydney with kids guide.

The Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay, which also has a cafe terrace with one of the best views in the city — and glass, so the view survives the weather.

The Powerhouse. Design, technology and engineering, and a good fit for older children and anyone tired of colonial history.

The State Library of New South Wales. Free, beautiful, warm, with rotating exhibitions and a reading room worth sitting in for its own sake. Chronically underused by visitors.

The Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour, where you can go below decks on a submarine and a destroyer — better in bad weather than good, since the vessels are cramped and hot in summer.

The undercover city

Central Sydney has more sheltered walking than it appears, and you can cross a surprising amount of the centre without getting properly wet.

The Queen Victoria Building is a restored 1890s shopping arcade running a full city block, with stained glass, tiled floors and two ornate hanging clocks. It is worth seeing as architecture even if you buy nothing.

The Strand Arcade, a few streets away, is smaller, older and better — Victorian ironwork, independent Australian designers and a couple of very good cafes.

Paddy’s Markets at Haymarket is undercover, chaotic and cheap.

Chinatown and the Spice Alley area nearby give you a long lunch under cover.

These connect reasonably well on foot with short dashes between, and the underground concourses at Town Hall and Wynyard cover more of the gaps than most people realise.

The ferry is better in the rain

This is the counterintuitive one, and it is the best advice on this page.

Sydney ferries have enclosed lower decks with large windows. In bad weather the harbour is dramatic rather than pretty — low cloud on the headlands, rain moving across the water, the bridge appearing and disappearing — and the boats are nearly empty because everyone else has decided it is not ferry weather.

Take the Manly service, sit inside, and ride it out and back. It costs ordinary transport fare, takes about an hour return, and is one of the few Sydney experiences that is genuinely improved by weather. Manly at the far end has a covered shopping street, several pubs and the aquarium if you want to break the journey.

The same applies to Watsons Bay and Cockatoo Island, though Cockatoo is largely outdoors once you arrive.

Swimming in the rain

Australians swim in the rain and visitors find this odd. You are going to get wet anyway, the water is warmer than the air, and the beaches and ocean pools are empty.

Two caveats, and the first is important. Do not swim at ocean beaches during or immediately after heavy rain. Stormwater runoff carries pollution into the water and beach water quality drops sharply for a day or so afterwards. The Beachwatch service publishes daily water quality ratings for Sydney beaches and is worth checking.

The second is lightning. If there is thunder, get out of the water and off the headlands.

In steady light rain with no storm and no recent downpour, an ocean pool is a genuinely lovely place to be. See our ocean pools guide.

Eating and drinking your way through it

A wet day is the right day to spend on food, and Sydney has the neighbourhoods for it.

Chinatown and Haymarket for yum cha, hotpot and noodles, all indoors, all cheap.

Newtown for a long afternoon of pubs, bookshops and cafes along a single street, with awnings most of the way.

Surry Hills for the best concentration of small bars and restaurants in the city.

The Rocks for historic pubs — the sandstone bars in the oldest part of the city are exactly where you want to be in bad weather, and several claim to be the oldest in Australia.

Our Sydney eating guide has the detail.

Sheltered outdoors, which is the best of both

Between fully indoors and fully exposed there is a middle category Sydney does well, and it is where we would spend a drizzly day.

The Royal Botanic Garden glasshouses and the Calyx give you a large planted display under cover, with the gardens outside for when it eases.

The Rocks markets run on weekends under awnings through the historic laneways, and the sandstone alleys themselves are worth walking in wet weather — they look better dark and slick than they do in flat sunshine.

Barangaroo’s foreshore walk is exposed but short, and connects to covered space at both ends.

The Opera House forecourt and the Circular Quay colonnades let you see the building and the harbour with cover close at hand. The Opera House interior tour is also a reasonable rain purchase, being one of the few paid attractions here that is entirely indoors and genuinely about the building.

Wharf and terrace cafes with glass — the Museum of Contemporary Art terrace, several places along the Manly Corso — give you the harbour view without the weather.

If it rains for three days

It happens, particularly between March and June when east coast lows can park off the coast. If your whole visit is wet, adjust rather than wait it out.

• Reorder your itinerary rather than cancelling. Move the museums and the food to the wet days and hold the coast for any clear window, even a short one.
• Consider the Blue Mountains anyway. Mist in the valleys is atmospheric rather than disappointing, and the rainforest walks at the bottom of the escarpment are sheltered. Just do not expect the lookout views.
• Book something. A wet stretch is when a theatre ticket, a cooking class or a gallery exhibition earns its price.
• Go to Manly and stay there. Ferry, covered street, pub, aquarium, ferry back. It fills a whole day and the journey is the best part.

What not to do is spend three days in a hotel room waiting. Sydney rain rarely lasts all day even in a wet week.

Day trips that work in bad weather

If the city itself is washed out, going somewhere else is a legitimate answer.

The Blue Mountains in mist is a genuinely different experience from the Blue Mountains in sun, and not a worse one. Cloud pouring over the escarpment is spectacular, the rainforest walks at the valley floor are sheltered by canopy, and the towns along the ridge have fires, bookshops and long lunches. What you lose is the big lookout views, so do not go on a wet day if that is the whole reason for the trip.

The Hunter Valley is largely an indoor activity anyway. Cellar doors do not care about weather.

The Royal National Park is best avoided in heavy rain — the tracks become slippery and creek crossings rise quickly.

See our Sydney day trips guide for the full set of options.

The things that are not worth doing in the rain

Being honest about this saves money.

The bridge climb runs in most weather, and there is something to be said for climbing in rain, but it is expensive and the view is the product. If you have another day available, move it.

Harbour cruises lose most of their appeal behind a wet window, and unlike the ferries they cost real money.

The observation tower in low cloud is a room with no view.

Taronga Zoo is workable but a compromise — much of it is outdoors and many animals shelter out of sight in heavy rain. Save it for a clear day if you can.

Beach days, obviously, though see the note above about swimming in light rain, which is more pleasant than it sounds.

Wet-weather practicalities

• Sydney rain is warm. For most of the year you want a light waterproof, not a heavy coat. In summer, an umbrella and getting slightly wet is a perfectly normal strategy.
• Umbrellas struggle in the wind that usually comes with a southerly. A hooded jacket is more use.
• Flash flooding can close roads briefly during intense downpours. Avoid driving through water of unknown depth.
• Ferries occasionally suspend services in extreme weather and are replaced by buses. Check the transport app before relying on one.
• Do not swim for a day after heavy rain at ocean beaches. Check Beachwatch ratings.

And when it clears, which it usually does, the light after Sydney rain is the best light the city gets. Head for a headland.