Secrets Playa Esmeralda Resort & SPA

What a fantastic week celebrating milestone birthday with 11 Besties! Getting the concierge service at the Preferred section was well worth it. Javier was absolutely fantastic, anticipating our every day needs and creating a very special environment to have a celebratory dinner. Everybody that worked at the hotel was friendly and always wanting to help make the experience great! Naomi and Paola were fantastic by the pool and Chocolate brought the energy to the activities. Rooms and resort were decorated beautifully. Some feedback — the app could be better at helping you know all that happens during the day. There are a lot of activities and it would be nice to be able set notifications to remind you about them, signup for pool aerobics was very confusing, could be explained better in app or at check-in.

We were there as a group of 11 women celebrating a milestone birthday. We went with the preferred section and we were not disappointed. Having Javier as our butler made the experience so special from making our reservations to surprising us with a private birthday delicious dinner at Rosewater complete with bday cake to moving beach chairs so we could sit in a circle for maximum chatting! His communication kept us all on the same page . Terrific! In addition we had tremendous service at bar and on beach from Naomi and Paola and Aura. Also great service from David at seaside grill- very fun and gave us some extras to taste! Beach is stunning! Water rough but fun and there are calmer places to swim down the beach a bit. Rooms comfy especially the beds! We had cleaning service everyday and were stocked with plenty of water. Great time had by all. Areas to improve : exercise classes were a bit loose and it would have been great to have real workouts in the gym. Coffee very inconsistent. One day yummy and the next undrinkable . Some of the service took a long time but to be expected with big group.

Very nice resort, would recommend to my friends. We had a butler named Simon would always respond and arrange what ever we needed. I rate Simon a 10 out of 10 Thank you Simon

Right from the start the staff was really welcoming, they made us feel right at home. The check-in was smooth, rooms where very nice, clean and spacious. The entertainment crew was amazing Chocolate was there everyday to manage the activities in the prefered section. Maximo at the pool bar crafted excellent cocktails. Music and atmosphere was very zen, lounge like, you could always drop by the dreams for more rhythmic party music. The preferred section was nice and on the quieter side. Very nice beach area, restaurants where very good. We especially loved the French restaurants "Bordeaux". Service was a little disappointing at the perfered only Rosewater, long wait, we didn't always fet what we ordered correctly. It was the only negative experience during our stay. Jacuzzi in the prefered sections was not heated (possibly a mechanical issue) they had 2 other close by so not really problematic. Definitely a nice resort in a more remote location, but that is a great advantage, the beach was very private, not wandering salesman. You definitely get what you payed for, worth every dime.

We returned on Monday from a stay at Secrets Playa Esmeralda from 4/7–4/13. Overall, we had a wonderful vacation. I appreciate reading honest opinions with insights that may help future travelers, so I am going to detail the experience I had with my husband. We were in the preferred club, and that is the only experience we had with the pool and lounge. Preferred pool: First and foremost, I want to shout out to Kelvin; he was an amazing bartender. Many guests have said that the pool chairs were hard to find because of Dreams guests, and that was our experience as well. I was at the pool by 7 am every day, and over half of the chairs were reserved, about 1/3 to 1/2 by Dream’s guests. There were several days when Secrets' guests would walk through before 11 am, and all the chairs were taken. There were three days when 6-8 boys under the age of 18 from Dreams came to Secrets pool with their parents (a group of 10 or so people). They would take up a lot of seats at the swim-up bar and act up. Preferred Club lounge and services: It was a welcoming place with excellent service and an excellent atmosphere, serving food all day. Our butler, Amarlys Mercedes, was top-notch. She responded promptly to all our questions (via WhatsApp), attended to all our needs, booked our dinner at Himitsu, and arranged our spa services. She went out of her way to find us at the pool or send general messages asking how things were going. This was our first all-inclusive, where the butler was engaging and attentive. Dining: I was worried because of the negative reviews; however, we found the food to be very good. The steak at the Rosewater was so tender I cut it with a butter knife. Something to consider is that there are limited dining options at Secrets. It surprised me that the sports bar (which is impressive) and sushi (Himitsu) are on the Dreams side, and unless you are Secrets Preferred, you can’t dine on that side. We would have liked to visit the sports bar, but we didn’t want to deal with children. We ate Hibachi at Himitsu, which was excellent, but there were children in the restaurant (not at our Hibachi table), which detracted from the adults-only experience. Staff: The best from any all-inclusive we have stayed at; everybody was friendly and accommodating. There was one hostess at the Market Café in the morning (happy, happy), and servers who made us smile (I wish I had asked their names)! I have to give a shout-out to the blueberry cake served at lunch; it was fantastic. Gym: We were disappointed with the workout facilities. The gym is small and is shared between Dreams and Secrets. As in many gyms, people would hang out at a machine for 20 minutes or more, texting and sitting, which made it difficult to get a good workout. We also encountered young teenage boys tossing medicine balls, playing on the benches, and acting stupid, which was frustrating. Beach: The beach is AMAZING! You can walk for miles, and the only facility you will see is Club Med, about 1 mile to the left of Secrets. We are pool people and don’t swim in the ocean, but some people told us they couldn’t swim in the ocean most of the time (mostly black flags, some red). If you go about a half mile to the left, there are a couple of calm coves. Dreams and Secrets crossover: Hands down, this was the biggest disappointment. I already mentioned how Dreams Preferred can come to Secrets, and why wouldn’t they? There wasn’t any barrier between Dreams and Secrets except for an archway, but nobody watched who came in or out. When I booked Secrets, I didn’t realize that Dreams was connected. If you are eating at a Secrets restaurant or milling about in the area by the spa, restaurants, and gift shop, there will be small children running around. Same for the beach; children are always cutting through Secrets to get to Dreams because they swim at the cove to the left of Secrets (Dreams is to the right). A Dreams guest went so far as to admit that they booked Dreams to save money, knowing they would spend all their time at Secrets. Spa services: We had an 80-minute couples deep tissue massage with Betty and Joanna, and it was amazing! My husband is a muscular man and felt that Joanna gave the best massage he had ever had. These ladies are small, but they are powerful! Room: We had a partial ocean view room on the Preferred side. It was almost a full ocean view, and we could hear the ocean even when the doors were closed. The balcony was small but functional. We are only in our room to get ready for dinner and sleep; otherwise, we are out and about, so the view is our main consideration. Infrastructure: Many guests have mentioned visible defects in this less than 1-year-old facility. We noticed them as well: paint peeling off the buildings, mildew and brown water stains on the stones of the buildings, weeds growing in the rocks above the roof overhangs, a shirt that fell and was hanging on the arbor between the rooms and pool, and water stains on the ceiling of the gym.