A rainy day on Singer Island

01How Florida rain usually goes

Rain on Singer Island has a shape. In summer the mornings are bright and calm, the sky stacks up tall clouds as the land heats, and a thunderstorm rolls through in the early or middle afternoon: heavy, loud, and usually over within an hour. Then it clears, and the evening turns soft and golden. In winter a cold front brings a windy, cooler day or two and a passing shower.

What that means for the day

• Put the beach and the water in the morning. The calmest seas and the emptiest sand are before noon in the warm months.
• Treat the storm as the cue to move indoors, to a long lunch, the spa or the sofa, and go back out when it passes.
• Respect the lightning. Florida has more of it than almost anywhere. When thunder sounds, leave the sand and the water and wait it out inside.

A rainy hour is not a lost day here. The rest of this page is for the afternoons when the rain settles in; the when to visit guide has the months.

02The spa below

The simplest rainy afternoon is the one that never leaves the building. The wellness centre, about one hundred thousand square feet with twenty-two treatment rooms, is an elevator ride below the residence, with room for a whole wet afternoon or for twenty minutes.

Using the day when it rains

• The salt room. A quiet room of backlit salt brick where you sit and breathe; twenty minutes is enough, and it needs no appointment beyond the resort's terms for the circuit.
• The hydrothermal circuit. Sauna, cold plunge, rest, the reflexology path, the salt chamber and the effusion shower, then around again. Give it ninety minutes to two hours.
• A booked treatment. Massages, facials and the hammam are appointments; in winter the good slots go early.

The movement side counts too. The gym and the spin studio are open on the resort's schedule, and fitness classes need no appointment; go to the spa desk and ask to join. Everything downstairs is booked with the resort, subject to its terms, and the spa guide explains the whole floor before you go down.

03The Norton Museum of Art

The Norton is about twenty minutes south in West Palm Beach, with its own parking, and it is the first place to point a rainy morning. Founded in 1941 by Ralph and Elizabeth Norton, it holds more than eight thousand works. The recent redesign by Foster + Partners added a new West Wing, a great hall, a restaurant and a shop, and wrapped the galleries around a garden.

What to see in two hours

• Chinese art, the museum's signature holding since the beginning: jades, bronzes and ceramics.
• European and American paintings, from the founders' French pictures to the twentieth century.
• Contemporary art and photography, where the big temporary shows tend to land in winter.

Pick two areas and give them real attention rather than marching through all of it. The restaurant inside makes a half-day of it without going back out into the rain. On a Friday, the museum's after-hours evening keeps the galleries open late with music and a bar. It closes one or two days a week, so check the schedule; the arts and culture guide has the rest of the season.

04The Kravis Center and the Four Arts

A wet evening is the right evening for a show. The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is West Palm Beach's main stage, about twenty minutes from the residence, with four venues under one roof: a concert hall of around two thousand seats for Broadway tours and the symphony, a mid-size playhouse, a recital hall, and an outdoor amphitheater for the dry months. It has a garage next door and valet on the bigger nights, and the calendar runs heaviest from late fall through spring.

• Book ahead in high season. The Broadway runs and the marquee concerts sell out weeks out.
• Dress smart-casual. A jacket never feels out of place.
• Eat near Rosemary Square first; the square sits beside the center, so one parking spot covers dinner and curtain.

Across the water on Palm Beach, the Society of the Four Arts is the quieter choice. Its gardens are for after the rain, but the library, the reading room and the galleries with their changing exhibitions are indoors, and through the winter it runs one of the region's better lecture and concert series. Popular talks need tickets, so check the day's program before you cross.

05Rosemary Square and the Gardens Mall

For a rainy afternoon with a group, Rosemary Square in downtown West Palm Beach asks the least of you. It is an open-air district, so the walkways are outdoors, but the garages are built into it, the shops open into the evening, there is a movie theater, and the restaurants sit close enough together that you can stand in one spot and see three or four choices. The Harriet Himmel Theater anchors the square, and Clematis Street is a few blocks north for when the rain lets up.

Two enclosed options

• The Gardens Mall, in Palm Beach Gardens to the north, is a mall, which on a day of steady rain is the point.
• Aventura Mall, beside the Brightline's Aventura station, is the larger and further choice, covered in the next section.

The shops of Worth Avenue and its courtyard vias are best saved for a dry morning; the vias are open to the sky, and their charm is the walking. The shopping guide sorts all of it by district and by what you are after.

06A day out on the Brightline

When the rain looks like a whole day, the train turns it into a day somewhere else. The Brightline's West Palm Beach station is downtown, about fifteen to twenty minutes from the residence by rideshare, and the coastal trains run roughly hourly, with free Wi-Fi and a power outlet at every seat. You buy the ticket in the app and walk in ten minutes before departure; there is no security line.

Where a wet day can go

• Aventura: the station sits beside Aventura Mall, so you walk off the platform and into an afternoon under a roof, with a food hall for lunch.
• Fort Lauderdale, about half an hour: the station is downtown, a short rideshare from the cafes and galleries of Las Olas Boulevard.
• Miami, about seventy minutes: MiamiCentral connects to the free Metromover for Brickell, and Wynwood's galleries are a short rideshare north.

Check the last northbound train before you settle into dinner, and sit on the east side heading south for the water. The Brightline guide has the classes, the booking tips and the Orlando run, which works better as an overnight than a day.

07The kitchen and the sofa

Some rainy afternoons are for staying twelve floors up and watching the weather cross the water. The living room and the dining room are wrapped in glass along the ocean side, so the storm is the show, and the sectional sofa faces it with a picture-frame television on the wall for when the show ends. Both bedrooms have smart televisions too.

Cooking in while it rains

• A pasta night: one big pot, a sauce, a green salad and a bottle from the wine fridge. The Miele kitchen has the pans, the dishes and the glassware.
• A grazing dinner: cheese, olives, bread and fruit spread along the island for eight, with no cooking at all.
• A delivery: grocery and restaurant delivery both reach the residence, timed for when you are in.

When the rain stops, the light after a storm is often the best of the day, and the balcony is a step away. The groceries guide covers stocking the kitchen, and the residence page walks the rooms you will be spending the afternoon in.