What to do in the Faroe Islands when the weather is bad

You checked the scores and everything reads 3 or 4. First: this is normal. The Faroes get around 260 rain days a year, and every trip here includes at least one grey, sideways-rain day. The locals don't cancel their lives for it, and you don't need to cancel your trip.

Second, and more useful: bad weather in the Faroes rarely lasts all day. Systems move through fast. A morning that scores 3 can turn into an afternoon that scores 7. So treat this guide as a holding pattern, not a write-off — and check the scores again in a couple of hours.

Drive the sub-sea tunnels

The tunnels are infrastructure, but they're also genuinely worth seeing — and they're the one attraction that works in any weather.

The Eysturoyartunnilin (Tórshavn ↔ Eysturoy, 11 km) has the world's only undersea roundabout, wrapped in a light installation by Faroese artist Tróndur Patursson. Driving through it in a storm, 180 metres below the Atlantic, is a properly strange experience. The Sandoyartunnilin (2023) connects Sandoy — a quiet island most visitors skip, which makes a rainy day a fine excuse.

The sub-sea tunnels are tolled — cameras read your plate, and rental cars are billed through the rental company. Details in the getting around guide.

Tórshavn old town and cafés

Tórshavn is built for weather like this. The old town on the Tinganes peninsula — turf roofs, black-tarred timber, government buildings from the 16th century — is a 20-minute wander that's arguably better in mist than in sun. Bring the waterproof and go slowly.

Then dry off in a café. Good bets:

• Paname Café — coffee and crêpes just up from the harbour
• Brell Café — relaxed, good coffee, often has locals working there all afternoon
• Kaffihúsið — right on the harbour front, watch the boats through the rain

Nordic House

Norðurlandahúsið (the Nordic House) is the Faroes' main cultural venue — a low turf-roofed building above Tórshavn that's worth visiting for the architecture alone. There's usually an exhibition on, often a concert or film in the evening, and the café has one of the better lunch deals in town. Check their programme when the forecast looks grim.

Museums and galleries

• Tjóðsavnið (the National Museum, Hoyvík, just outside Tórshavn) — Viking-age finds, the famous medieval pew ends from Kirkjubøur, and a good walk-through of how people actually survived out here
• Listasavn Føroya (the National Gallery) — Faroese art from the 19th century to now, next to the Viðarlundin park; Sámal Joensen-Mikines' storm paintings hit different when the real thing is rattling the windows
• Steinprent — a working lithography workshop on the Tórshavn harbourfront where international and Faroese artists print; free to walk in

Wool and shopping

Faroese wool is the real souvenir, and shopping for it is a legitimate rainy-day activity:

• Guðrun & Guðrun — the designer end; their hand-knitted jumper became famous via the TV series The Killing
• Navia — quality knitwear at friendlier prices
• SMS — the country's one shopping mall, in Tórshavn; unglamorous but dry, with a supermarket, pharmacy and cafés under one roof

Swim while it rains

Every decent-sized town has a heated indoor pool, and there's something very Faroese about swimming while rain hammers the windows. Gundadalur in Tórshavn is the biggest. Páls Høll in Vágur (Suðuroy) is the one people photograph — the pool looks straight out over the fjord through a wall of glass.

Kirkjubøur

A 15-minute drive from Tórshavn, Kirkjubøur was the medieval religious centre of the islands: the roofless Magnus Cathedral (c. 1300), the still-active Saint Olav's Church, and Kirkjubøargarður — one of the oldest inhabited wooden houses in the world, farmed by the same family for 17 generations. It's outdoors, but it's a short visit between showers, and the ruins in low cloud are more atmospheric than they'd ever be in sunshine.

If the sea is calmer than the land

Grey and windy on land doesn't always mean rough at sea. The Vestmanna bird cliffs boat tours sail in a fair range of conditions, and the cliffs and grottos are dramatic under heavy sky. Call ahead or check at the harbour — they know better than any forecast whether they're going out.

The weather will flip — be ready

The most important thing about a bad-weather day in the Faroes: it usually isn't a bad-weather day, it's a bad-weather few hours. Fronts clear fast, and the light immediately after rain is the best light these islands produce.

So keep half an eye on the live scores while you're in the café. Every location page also shows a best window for the day when one exists — if Múlafossur jumps from 3 to 7 at 15:00, you want to already be in the car.

Related guides

• What to pack — the waterproofs that make bad weather a non-event
• Getting around — tunnels, tolls, ferries and the helicopter trick
• Best time to visit — month-by-month weather odds