Rainy-day Devon: board games, card games and indoor things to do without leaving the apartment

Devon is beautiful in almost any weather, but a rainy afternoon changes the rhythm of a break. The open-air plans—a walk to the tor, a visit to the coast—move indoors. For a couple staying in a holiday apartment, a good rainy day is a chance to slow down, move at a different pace, and discover what an afternoon together actually feels like when you are not rushing from one activity to the next. Here are ways to fill it.

Games for two

Board games are surprisingly good at two players. Most modern games are designed to work well with pairs, and a few are designed specifically for two.

Patchwork is a two-player game about stitching a quilt. Players take turns buying fabric patches and arranging them on their quilt board. Each patch costs buttons (the game’s currency), and you gain buttons by advancing further along a scoring track. The whole game takes 30 minutes, the rules are simple, and there is something deeply satisfying about filling your quilt. It is the kind of game that plays quickly but leaves you with the sense that something meaningful happened.

Jaipur is a trading game where two players buy and sell goods in an Indian market. The game is compact (it fits in a small box), quick (20-30 minutes), and genuinely tense. You are constantly trying to outsmart your opponent and spot the moment to cash in your goods before they do. It is easy to play three rounds in an evening, getting faster and smarter with each one.

Codenames Duet is a cooperative word-guessing game where you and your partner work together against the game itself. One of you gives clues to help the other guess hidden words. It is collaborative rather than competitive, and if you lose, you can immediately try again. Games take 15-20 minutes, and it is the kind of game that makes you feel clever when you solve it.

Playing cards are timeless. A simple deck of cards can give you hours: Rummy, Gin Rummy, War (for something truly relaxing), or Spit (a fast, chaotic game for when you both need a laugh). Card games require almost no setup, they do not take up much table space, and they scale from “we are gently passing an afternoon” to “we are getting competitive.”

Films and reading

Your apartment comes with a 4K TV, a Blu-ray player and a collection of DVDs. A rainy afternoon is permission to settle in and watch something properly—not something you half-watch while scrolling a phone. Choose something neither of you has seen, or return to something you both love. The cottage-style living room, the window onto the woodland garden, and the chance to pause and make tea without anyone else needing anything is a rare luxury.

If reading is more your pace, many guests leave paperbacks behind. The apartment keeps a selection of fiction, true crime, history and travel writing. A rain-soaked afternoon with a good book and the occasional glance at the garden through the window is its own kind of contentment.

Making something

A rainy afternoon is the right time to cook something you would not normally bother with. The apartment has a full kitchen with everything you need: a proper cooker, a full-size fridge, utensils and crockery. Local supermarkets stock good ingredients, or bring something with you.

Make bread. Make a proper soup. Make pastry. Make something that takes time and attention but does not require leaving the apartment. Cooking together, for each other, in a space that is yours alone for a few hours, is underrated as a holiday activity. Eat it by the window overlooking the garden, and you have transformed a rainy afternoon into something memorable.

Conversations

This one sounds obvious but often does not happen. At home, there are distractions—work emails, household tasks, the usual friction of daily life. On a rainy afternoon in a Devon apartment with nowhere to go and no one else to see, the friction falls away. Conversation becomes something you can actually do.

Bring questions. There are card decks designed for this—question games where you draw a card and answer or discuss a question together. Or make your own: the things you have always meant to ask but somehow never do, the stories from your childhood you have never properly told each other, the dreams you keep quiet about.

A rainy afternoon is permission to talk like you are new to each other, rediscovering the things you know and the things you do not.

Gentle movement

If sitting at a table for hours is not appealing, gentle movement breaks it up. Yoga, stretching, or a slow walk around the private deck even in light rain can be oddly restorative. The apartment has plenty of space, the ambient sound of rain is soothing, and a slow-paced activity fills the afternoon without demanding anything of you.

Why rainy days are worth embracing

A rainy Devon break is not a disappointment waiting to happen. It is a permission slip. You get to slow down, to focus on each other, to do things that do not scale—games that take 30 minutes, conversations that meander, meals you take time over. The walking, the coastal visits, the open-air attractions will all be there tomorrow when the weather turns. Today, you get something rarer: an uninterrupted afternoon that belongs entirely to you.

Pack a game you like. Bring ingredients for something you want to cook. And remember that the best part of a holiday is often not the activities, but the company and the absence of pressure. A rainy day in Devon is the perfect excuse for both.