A sauna and cold plunge pool in Ibiza and Menorca, between whitewash and dry-stone

The Ibiza brief: privacy, shade and a cold plunge after the sun

Ibiza villas are built for the long evening: reed pergolas, white walls, a sea view and a neighbour you do not see. A corner-glass sauna beside the plunge pool is a natural fit, but the glass is the neighbour's problem as much as yours, so we turn it towards the sea and put a solid wall towards the lane. The chiller sits in shade, away from the party terrace, and the plant room has a louvred door.

The Menorca brief: stone, quiet and rules

Menorca is a Biosphere Reserve, with a long tradition of dry-stone walls and low farmhouses. Ask the town hall and the island council what applies to new structures on rural land, because both may have a say. A cabin that hides in an existing outbuilding is easier to approve than a new pavilion; a plunge pool in a walled yard is easier than a pool in a field. Ask the council what the property is registered as before anything is drawn.

Both islands: works seasons and who may do what

Ask the town hall whether noisy building works are restricted in the high season; gated or community-run developments add their own calendars. The practical result is a winter installation window: order in autumn, build in the workshop through winter, install in spring before the season opens. Ask the town hall for the works calendar early.

No Ibiza or Menorca station is in the WMO normals we could read, so the nearest figures we can quote are Palma's: the harbour station gives a July mean daily maximum of 29.9 °C and a January mean minimum of 8.9 °C (1991–2020, Spain's national submission). Shelter and sea breeze vary from cove to cove, so we ask for the exposure of the plot and design for 38–40 °C air in any case.

Freight, ferries and the last lane

Crates reach the islands by sea, then by road. On Ibiza the road network is busy in summer and the last lane to a villa can be a track; on Menorca the roads between stone walls are narrow. We ask for the width of the gate, the turning space and the nearest port you can reach, and we schedule the delivery window with the haulier.

Agroturismos and boutique hotels

Small hotels on both islands suit the courtyard formula: two glass cabins and a cold pool in a limestone or whitewashed yard, with a plant room behind. The boutique hotel page has the arithmetic, and the Algarve profile shows how it is built.

Beach clubs, agroturismos and the difference

A beach club needs capacity and a bar; an agroturismo needs calm and a reason to stay a week. The first wants a cabin for eight and two cold pools with a rota; the second wants one pavilion in the olive grove and a pool in the old cistern. We draw both, and we say honestly which our compact plant suits better. See boutique hotels and holiday lets.

Solar panels and a heater that likes the afternoon

Island villas often carry solar panels. A sauna heater draws its rated power while it heats the cabin and in use, which suits an afternoon when the roof is producing. A 6 kW heater is not small, so ask your installer what the panels and the inverter can feed, and whether a session at four in the afternoon can run from the roof. The layout lists the loads so the conversation is arithmetic.

A sample for an Ibiza villa

Four traps on the white islands

• Building in the season. Noisy works in July meet complaints and sometimes restrictions. Plan the installation outside the high season.
• Assuming one rule for both islands. Ibiza and Menorca are governed by different island councils and different protections. A decision on one says nothing about the other.
• Glass that faces the neighbour. On a small plot the cabin's glass is a window onto someone else's terrace. We turn it towards the sea and put a solid wall towards the lane.
• The party terrace beside the plant. A chiller hums; a terrace at night is quiet. The two should not share a wall.

Both islands have long shoulder seasons that suit a cabin and a warm pool as much as a cold one. A villa that fills in April and October is better served by the pair than by a cold pool alone.

The casa payesa and the Menorcan farmhouse

Ibiza's rural houses, the casas payesas, are cubic, whitewashed and built of thick stone with a flat roof and small windows; Menorca's farmhouses are low and stone, with a wall around the yard. Both take a glass cabin best when it is set apart, in an outbuilding or at the edge of the terrace, with a plunge pool in the yard. The house keeps its character and the cabin keeps its glass.

Prices for the cabin and the square pool are in the price list; the kit builder adds a pergola, a deck and lighting.