My wife and I love to travel and decided to return to the Mexico Riviera for the third time. We really enjoy the combination of white sandy beaches, turquoise seas, culture, and the festive atmoshphere that the area offers. I had high expectation for Secrets based upon the recommendations from a travel agent and reviews on the net.

The welcoming experience: Upon arrival, guests are sat in the lobby and offerred a flute of champagne with a cool towel. This is a nice touch, but also a convienent way of making up for a slow check in process. We booked the standard room through Travelocity. At the check in desk, we were told that only rooms with two twin beds were available. We paid $340 more to upgrade to a room with a King bed. Everyone we talked to at the resort, had the same experience. The check in experience was more typical of a time share than a resort.

The rooms: Comfortable bedding, nice decor, marble bath and shower, stocked fridge, and nice size balcony overlooking the pool. We had no problems with service and thought the rooms were nice.

The food: We liked the food at the italian restaurant the best. All of the restarurants serve small portions and offer slow service. The food was good, but not memorable. The service was poor and unfortunately memorable. We only ate at the buffet two times, once for breakfast and once for dinner - okay but nothing great.

The pool: Nice pool. No problem with getting a lounge chair. The pool area gets lively around happy hour. I was disappointed with the limited entertainment around the pool area. The quality of pool bar drinks are inconsistant. Nice place to relax.

The beach: Okay, not great. The sand beach directly in front of Secrets in the best in this stretch of the coast line. Sand obviously has been imported from elsewhere to make up this beach. The quality of the beach drops off significantly on both sides of the Secrets property. The water is clear and has a greenish-blue tint, but not the gorgouse turquoise color that we had experienced in the riveria myan area just south of Playa de Carmen. No problem getting a lounge chair to relax on the beach. I love to jog on the beach, but found it challenging due to the pitch and lack of hard packed sand. Secrets does have a jogging trail along the driveway in the front of the property.

The entertainment: Disappointing. Nightly entertainment was minimal. The newly wed game was held in a room suitable for a business conference, not for entertaining guests. Secrets relies upon an ametuer staff to coordinate activities and is reflective in both the quantity and quality of entertainment.. We did enjoy the buffet on the beach with the local dance troupe.

Overall experience: Secrets is a nice property, but I did not get a Mexican experience. Food and entertainment is more typical of an American resort. We did enjoy the adults only aspect of the resort.. We had stayed at the Iberostar Tucan twice and would recommend the Iberostar over Secrets for better food, pool, beach, entertainment, Mexican feel, service, and value.

Secrets Capri, was truly the most beautiful and gracious resort I have ever stayed. Their art collection alone has to be worth millions. Ever floor and wall is polished marble. They offer round the clock room service, maid service and concierge. They have a nightclub, numerous bars and a nightly show. (For example one night they had a famous jazz singer from Cuba, a Las Vegas show girls show, and on one evening a comedian from the U.S. From greeting us at the door with champagne and cool towels, to the bar in their infinity pool, the five four-star restaurants with accomplished chefs, was all a wonderful surprise. It was a phenomenal experience. We were truly pampered for eight straight days. All the drinks were top shelf. It was all-inclusive including the water sports (sailing, kayaking, snorkeling, etc.), plus complementary daily excursions. The beach at this hotel, literally has the whitest cleanest sand on the Riveria. Actually the entire hotel is kept very clean and sparkeling.
Airfare – hotel for 8 days ended up costing 3748.00 for two people. We flew Continental, which was the best way to fly. They have television broadcasting and meals. However there are other airlines that fly there.
Do not stop to pay for a shuttle or a cab before you get outside. You will be kidnapped by a timeshare program that will really take away from your trip. I have attached the link if you care it check it out.
http://www.secrets-capri.com

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! After a long cold winter in Chicago, my boyfriend surprised me with a another wonderful trip to Secrets. We were so impressed with our stay last year that he knew it would be just the thing to please me. The welcoming staff, food, rooms were all as wonderful as we remembered and the manager's reception was great. We travel frequently and never have had the pleasure of actually meeting the man who "makes it all happen." The pool was beautiful, quiet and very romantic. The staff made everyone feel like they were the only guests on the property. All the restaurants and food were very delicious and much better than we remembered on our last visit. I am truly hoping my boyfriend (maybe husband next visit ? - this would be a wonderful wedding venue) will continue to make this a yearly trip! See you next year with "more Secrets."

We had a lovely honeymoon at Secrets during the week of April 5 - 12th. The resort was in line with the generally positive traveler Trip Advisor reviews on this site. We are well-traveled and overall, I feel that we got the 4-out-of-5 star experience that we paid for.

There are so many pros, so I'll just note some of my favorites:

- Great Service/ Chill Atmosphere: Overall, I felt that the staff went a long way to make us feel pampered and welcomed. The guests were mature and the experience was very peaceful. As with most resorts, there are always those towel-game players, but we never had a problem snagging a nice spot by the beach or pool.

- Food: For an all-inclusive experience, I found that the food quality and variety was very good. We loved the beach-side Ceviche and Taco bar. Note: my husband and I never got food poisoning at Secrets.

- Cleanliness: the grounds are beautiful, the sand is great on the beach. I never noticed any mold / must as has been mentioned in recent posts.

- Proximity of rooms to beach: It was just great having our room be so close to the beach. I loved the intimacy of this resort. Our ocean-view room (#537) was wonderful!

As for cons, I honestly can't think of anything negative that is exclusive to Secrets; this certainly wasn't the Ritz, but we didn't expect it to be. However, the next time I go to Mexico I'll probably splurge to stay at a resort with a calm, turquoise beach. Don't get me wrong -- the beach was beautiful and peaceful. However, it was inconsistently clear; sometimes the waves were choppy, kicking up the sand and seaweed and making the water appear less blue. That is just a personal preference though -- you can see from my photos that it's still lovely!

Tip: Bring a stack of $1 bills for tipping. tipping is certainly not expected, but we were treated so nicely by the staff that sometimes we wanted to tip...