A sauna and cold plunge pool in the Canary Islands, on basalt and trade wind

A cold pool for twelve months

On the Canaries the winter is a gentle spring, and the sea stays warm enough to swim for most of the year. There is little cold to heat against, so a sauna here is a ritual, in the evening, after the sun, more than a necessity. The cold pool is the everyday object and the glass cabin the treat. A hot-and-cold pair is a niche here, for owners who come from colder countries and for hotels with northern European guests.

Gran Canaria airport (WMO normals 1991–2020, Spain's national submission): mean daily maxima of 26.9 °C in July and 27.5 °C in August, a January mean minimum of 15.6 °C and 132 mm of rain a year; Tenerife Sur reads 28.2 and 28.8 °C with 119 mm. The air rarely gets hot enough to defeat a chiller, and never cold enough to rest it, so the plant runs a long, even duty; a calima day is the exception.

Basalt, salt and the trade wind

The islands are built of black basalt, and it sets the palette: dark mosaic or tile in the pool, a coping in basalt or dark stone, pale ash inside the cabin. The trade wind blows from the north-east for much of the year and carries salt onto every north-facing surface. We use 316 stainless steel for everything that touches water or air near the sea, turn the cabin's glass away from the strongest wind and rinse down surfaces with fresh water after a blow. Salt air, timber, glass and steel lists what to check.

Calima, the day the sky turns orange

A few times a year hot air and fine Saharan dust arrive together. The temperature jumps, visibility drops and dust settles on glass, on the pool and on the chiller's coil. We draw easy-access filters and a rinseable coil, put a cover on the pool and write on the handover card what to do after a calima: rinse the glass, clean the coil, check the filter. It takes ten minutes and saves the machine.

North and south of the same island

On Tenerife the south is dry and sunny, with resort hotels and villas around Costa Adeje, while the north is green, cooler and damp, with fincas and vineyards around La Orotava. In the south the opponent is sun: shade for the glass and the chiller. In the north it is damp: ventilated cladding, a drained base and a cabin that can dry out between uses. Gran Canaria sits between the two.

Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and the rules of taste

Lanzarote has a strong local building tradition of low, white or earth-coloured houses and tight control of what may be added to them; Fuerteventura adds sand and wind. A glass cabin that looks like a pavilion on Ibiza may need a different skin here. Ask the town hall about height, colour and finishes before the layout, and we draw to the answer.

Freight, customs and tax: a different set of forms

Everything crosses the sea, and indirect taxes and customs on the islands may differ from the mainland's. Ask your adviser how a shipment of equipment is treated on arrival, and add a few weeks for the crossing to the schedule. Our layout shows the freight route and the lead time in writing, and the quote itemises taxes and duties for your island.

Resort hotels and wellness corners

Hotels in the south and in the larger resorts have the space and the guests. A corner with a glass sauna for eight and two plunge pools suits them, and the plant room is the part to get right: see boutique hotels and hygiene for commercial plunge pools.

A south-Tenerife villa, in numbers

Mainland habits that do not survive the crossing

• Mainland assumptions on freight and tax. The islands have their own arrangements. A quote built on mainland logistics will miss weeks and lines.
• Steel that is not marine grade. On the north-east coast the trade wind carries salt everywhere. 316 or nothing.
• Dust forgotten. After a calima the coil and the filter need cleaning. If nobody knows, the machine suffers.
• A cabin drawn for a frost that never comes. The insulation stays, because a 90 °C cabin loses heat to 20 °C air almost as readily as to 5 °C air; what changes is the detailing for sun, salt and dust.

The contrast the islands offer

The sea around the Canaries stays mild for much of the year, so a pool held at 3–5 °C is a sharper contrast there than the sea itself: a warm afternoon on one side and a cold basin on the other. A cabin at the end of the day completes it. The pair is rarely needed, because the warm side is always the weather.

Island freight and taxes sit outside the ranges in the price list; the kit builder gives the equipment side.