Rainy day on Oʻahu
It’s probably not raining everywhere: upper Mānoa gets 6.8 times the rain of Waikīkī, four miles away. The rainy season is October to April, but most showers pass in a few hours. If it’s set in, here are 21 places that are properly under a roof.
Things to do under a roof
Every one of these is fully indoors unless it says otherwise.
Make something
Across the island — 34 of them
Pottery, printmaking, weaving, jewellery, glass, leather. One of them is ours, KraftStories in Chinatown.
FreeMake something
Free lei making and lauhala weaving
Royal Hawaiian Center, Building C Level 2, 2201 Kalākaua Ave · Lei making Fridays 11:30am–12:30pm · lauhala weaving Wednesdays, same time
Free, properly taught, open to anyone, and the classroom is indoors even though the centre around it is not.
Burn energy
4510 Salt Lake Blvd, Honolulu, HI 96818 · Public skate Fri 6–10pm · Sat 11am–4pm and 5–10pm · Sun 11am–4pm
No public skate Monday to Thursday
The only ice rink in the state, which is a strange and delightful thing to find in Salt Lake.
Burn energy
94-157 Leoleo St, Waipahu, HI 96797
Fourteen thousand square feet of trampolines and a four thousand square foot laser tag arena, both enclosed.
Burn energy
825 Ilaniwai St, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Mon–Fri 8am–11pm · Sat–Sun 8am–9:30pm
Bouldering, top rope, lead and auto-belay in Kakaʻako, with yoga upstairs, and open until eleven on weeknights.
Burn energy
506 Keawe St, Kakaʻako, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Mon–Wed 4–9pm · Thu 4–10pm · Fri 2–10pm · Sat 10am–11pm · Sun 12–8pm
Ten indoor lanes and a bar.
Burn energy
Aiea Bowl · Lucky Strike at Ala Moana · Leeward Bowl, Pearl City · Barber’s Point, Kapolei · Aiea Bowl Sun–Thu 10am–midnight, Fri–Sat until 2am
Aiea Bowl has 22 lanes and a restaurant people go to without bowling.
Burn energy
Keiki Kingdom in Honolulu, ʻAiea and Waipahu · Kids City at Ala Moana and Kapolei · Keiki Kingdom Honolulu and ʻAiea Sun–Thu 10am–8pm, Fri–Sat until 9pm
Soft play under a roof, which on a wet Saturday is worth more than its weight in anything.
FreeMuseum
250 S Hotel St, 2nd floor, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Wed–Sat 10am–4pm
Closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
The state art museum, free, and the galleries are all on one enclosed floor.
- Partly covered
Museum
900 S Beretania St, Honolulu, HI 96814 · Wed–Thu and Sat–Sun 10am–6pm · Fri 10am–9pm
Closed Monday and Tuesday
The galleries are enclosed and the collection is the best in the state, but the museum is built around open-air courtyards and you cross them to move between…
Partly coveredMuseum
1525 Bernice St, Honolulu, HI 96817 · Daily 9am–5pm
Hawaiian Hall, Pacific Hall, the planetarium and the science centre are each properly enclosed.
Museum
Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi
2454 S Beretania St, Honolulu, HI 96826 · Wed–Sat 9am–3pm
Closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
Small, enclosed and quiet, with a permanent gallery on the Japanese American experience in Hawaiʻi.
Partly coveredMuseum
319 Lexington Blvd, Ford Island, Honolulu, HI 96818 · Daily 9am–5pm
Two enormous WWII hangars, both genuinely enclosed, and the best Pearl Harbor option in rain by a distance.
Museum
Hawaiʻi Children’s Discovery Center
111 ʻOhe St, Honolulu, HI 96813 · Tue–Fri 9am–1pm · Sat–Sun 10am–3pm
Closed Monday
Multi-storey enclosed galleries in Kakaʻako, aimed squarely at under-tens, and hands-on throughout.
Cinema
Every cinema on Oʻahu
Kapolei ×3 (Consolidated, Regal Commons, Olino) · Pearl City · ʻAiea (Pearlridge) · Mililani · Honolulu ×3 (Kahala, Ward, Regal Dole Cannery) · Kailua · Kāneʻohe (Regal Windward)
Eleven of them, and between Regal Dole Cannery and the three Consolidated TITAN LUXE screens you can find IMAX, 4DX and ScreenX.
Enclosed mall
98-1005 Moanalua Rd, ʻAiea, HI 96701 · Mon–Sat 10am–8pm · Sun 10am–6pm
The largest indoor mall in the state, air conditioned throughout, with a cinema, an escape room and a food court.
Enclosed mall
4211 Waialae Ave, Honolulu, HI 96816 · Mon–Sat 10am–9pm · Sun 10am–6pm
Enclosed, air conditioned, one level, and it has a cinema, an arcade and a Whole Foods under the same roof.
Enclosed mall
46-056 Kamehameha Hwy, Kāneʻohe, HI 96744 · Mon–Sat 10am–9pm · Sun 10am–6pm
Two enclosed, air-conditioned levels with a cinema, a food court, an arcade and an indoor playground.
Eat & drink
STIX ASIA
2250 Kalākaua Ave, lower level, Honolulu, HI 96815
A basement food hall in Waikīkī, entirely below ground and therefore entirely dry.
Eat & drink
905 Kapaa Quarry Pl, Building 50 Unit 5014, Kailua, HI 96734 · Mon–Thu and Sun 12–7pm · Fri–Sat 12–9pm
A tasting room in a warehouse unit at the foot of the Koʻolau, which is the wettest place on this list and entirely under a roof.
Eat & drink
Kailua — the exact address comes with your booking
Forty-five minutes, self-guided, through fifty-six steps of making chocolate from Hawaiʻi-grown cacao.
Where it actually rains
Average inches a year. Drive away from the top of this list.
- Koʻolau summit, inland of Kahana260″
- Pauoa Flats, the crest above Nuʻuanu157″
- Upper Mānoa, at Lyon Arboretum152″
- Upper Nuʻuanu106″
- Lower Mānoa65″
- Mount Kaʻala, the island’s highest peak65″
- Waimea Valley, North Shore55″
- Kāneʻohe town53″
- Waimānalo43″
- Kāneʻohe Bay, at Mokapu32″
- Downtown Honolulu30″
- Waikīkī22″
- Waiʻanae town21″
- Kapolei and Kalaeloa18″
- ʻEwa Beach18″
- Honolulu Airport17″
Recommended for rain, but not indoors
These come up in every rainy-day list. You’ll get wet at all of them.
Ala Moana Center
The single most recommended rainy-day destination on Oʻahu, and its own website calls it the world’s largest open-air shopping centre, where the refreshing Hawaiian wind blows through.
Waikīkī Aquarium
The monk seal habitat is an outdoor enclosure, the shark exhibit and the Edge of the Reef zone are outdoors, and the layout is a garden path with an indoor gallery attached.
Polynesian Cultural Center
The island villages are entirely outdoor walking and the canoe pageant is on open water.
Dole Plantation
The maze, the garden tour and the train are all outside.
International Market Place and Royal Hawaiian Center
Both open-air by design, built around courtyards and a banyan tree.
Ka Makana Aliʻi
Described in its own listing as an open-air retail centre.
Aloha Stadium Swap Meet
An outdoor market in a car park, frequently listed as an indoor one.
Sea Life Park, Foster Botanical Garden, and every public swimming pool
Open-air marine park, a garden, and — a genuinely surprising finding — we could not verify a single indoor public swimming pool anywhere on Oʻahu.
Rain safety
Venues were checked against their own pages on Aug 13, 2026. Rainfall is NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals and the Rainfall Atlas of Hawaiʻi; the season figures are National Weather Service Honolulu. See how we verify.
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