Secrets Maroma Beach Riviera Cancun

Beautiful Property and exceptional staff. Roger Arroyo assisted swiftly to any request or question. Love the Secret Box concept.

Fabulous This resort is fabulous. Fabulous design, layout, scale. Beautiful rooms, great food. And the beach, beyond fabulous … This was our seventh visit, and we’ve loved our time at SMB. This year we were really impressed by all the improvements since our last visit: * Beach lounging – Additional palapas, new chaise longues, new side tables, new towels. Huge improvements here. We commented in our last review on the need for these upgrades and were so pleased to see them happen! * Preferred Lounge – A total makeover. Wow! It used to have the look and feel of a 60’s rec room, with UVC staff lurking up front. Now it’s truly a proper lounge and well worth visiting. Super impressed to see all the changes here. Beautiful. * World Café (Morning buffet, lunch, Mediterranean dining in the evening) – Another total makeover, simply beautiful. * Oceana & Seaside Grill – Here again, a total refresh. Beautiful, elegant. * Desires Bar – We didn’t spend time here, but this is now a fine-looking cocktail bar. * Re-usable yeti-style water bottles in the preferred rooms (+ refillable water stations at various locations throughout the property) – This may sound like a small thing, but was an unexpected treat! Huge praises from us on the effort to cut down on plastic water bottles at the beach/pool, so smart! Although the physical improvements were impressive (with more to come), the SMB staff - our hosts - are where “fabulous” really happens. To name just a few: * Roberto, our building concierge – remarkably attentive to every aspect of our stay; a special gift for leaving his guests feeling heard; caring; a real gentleman. * Bramdon – concierge in the building next door, pinch hitting for Roberto when he takes his day off or is tied up with other guests; we looked forward every day to saying “hello” and, if we hadn’t run into him, would seek him out; a lovely big-hearted guy. * Aldo – the head of the building concierge team, wonderfully approachable and caring, determined to do well by his guests, a great addition to the concierge team. * Elvina for our room and Abel our fridge, looking after our home away from home. * Edy, Maurizio, and Mannie – stellar beach concierge team. * Ana, Einar, Melissa, Marvin, Rene, Eder, Alberto – phenomenal servers at beach and pool. * Bernice, Maricruz, and Mariana greeting us daily at the World Café, Freddy and Roberto making sure we’re well looked after. * Jessica – superlative Food & Beverage Manager. * Chef Francisco and his team at Himitsu Restaurant – big hearts and boundless energy, very special. * Veronica – Manager at El Patio, always looking to help. * Otilio – our friendly, knowledgeable sommelier. (How can you be in so many places at the same time – and all the while maintain your irrepressible smile?). * Jessica, Nedye, Carmen – our ever-attentive Lobby Bar team. * Enrique and Valentin in the Lobby Bar, wonderful mixologists * Janet – our charming special events coordinator (Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, “just because” date night). * Rogelio – warm, big-hearted, and always welcoming; an. * Rifkele –when we met Rif a few years ago, her endearing cheerfulness and welcoming way made a lasting impression; we cherish the opportunity to catch up during our stay. All of you see so many people in the course of a year, we know. And yet – to a soul – you make us feel welcome and our stay special and memorable beyond words. We know how hard you work and are very grateful for everything you all do. We appreciate you, treasure our friendship with you, and keep you close year-round. Opportunities for improvement? * Lobby Bar – This is a beautiful, elegant space, and a lovely spot to have a cocktail before and after a meal. The selection of spirits has improved, but we wish the staff here were able to offer the wider selection of spirits available in the Preferred Lounge, at least to Preferred Guests. And we wish the Silent Disco and similar Entertainment Team events were relocated to the Desires Bar… * Gym – SMB has brought in some new equipment (yay!). We hope the upgrade continues. Now, if only it were a larger space… * Tuna Snoring – Whole fresh tuna carved and served up by the pool, wow! Kind of a shame it needed to be an Entertainment Team show. Felt a bit odd, and actually took away from the bounty of the offering… * Musicians – The guitarist in the World Café in the morning (acoustic) was a real pleasure, and his electric show by the pool in the afternoon a blast. Thank you for sharing your talent with us! The violinist? Not so much. And a but… We have the impression that Hyatt is shifting SMB’s focus away from couples, a romantic vibe, and accommodating longer stays (two to three weeks) to courting short-term large corporate groups instead. A number of our fellow travelers (repeat guests, all of them) felt the same way. Unfortunately, from a couple’s perspective, this often means the resort is teeming with guests determined to eat, drink, and act like there’s no tomorrow – and like no one’s watching … Perhaps that’s what happens when the employer is picking up the tab. We’re not surprised that this seems to be a recurring theme in several reviews (check those with a rating of four-out-of-five). Surely this puts the management and staff of the resort in a very difficult position. How to maintain “casual elegance” without alienating the “Bucket of Bud” crowd, and vice versa? And of course, predictably, this shifting focus seems to have had an unfortunate impact on the cost. We were shocked to find that 2027 prices are a stunning 66% higher than 2026. Surely increases of this magnitude cannot be sustainable in a competitive market – unless, that is, money is no object in Corporate America and those corporate groups keep coming. That said, we loved our stay at SMB in 2026 and can hardly wait to return. Jeri & Tim – Canada

My husband was a “we don’t need a vacation” kind of guy until we went to Secrets Maroma. Since that first trip two years ago, we have returned three times (plus trips to Secrets Akumal and Secrets Playa Blanca), so clearly he was impressed and immediately converted. It’s a fabulous resort – luxurious, wonderfully elegant, and very well maintained. But the main reason the resort is so spectacular is the staff. Every person we encountered was warm, friendly, helpful, and remembered our names! Service is impeccable. As usual, our flight was delayed, so when we arrived, it was lovely to be met with a glass of champagne and cool towels to get the plane vibes off us. Daniel met us with a smile and a warm “welcome home.” Maria checked us in quickly and off we went to Bldg. 17, ocean front room. Claude showed us around our room, giving the info on how everything worked, making sure we had what we needed. Spotless room, solid air conditioning, beautiful view, and quiet. We then headed off to explore the resort and stopped at the sports bar for a mid-day cocktail where Angel helped us with our Spanish and was everything you want a bartender to be – welcoming, witty, friendly, great at mixing cocktails! Our daily routine is room service coffee at 7:30 a.m. (always on time, always hot), then to the breakfast buffet. We do stop at the pool to drop off our bags and books to hold our chairs because we don’t take more than an hour to have breakfast. This seems to be a common practice (saving pool chairs), but there have always been enough chairs. If you need help finding something, your pool concierge will help (thank you, Luis)! Breakfast is fantastic - made-to-order omelettes, great options for everyone’s food preferences. I usually load up on the pastries like no one is watching, then pair it with the green juice to make it look like I’m healthy. The hostesses and servers are friendly and attentive. The cooks / chefs prepare fantastic dishes. We enjoyed the pool and the beach -- Isamar and Luis made sure we had everything we needed. The sargassum was not an issue at all when we were there (March). What little was present was removed very early in the morning. That’s a job that needs a big tip jar for those guys. After our second trip to Secrets, we realized we didn’t have to eat everything at one restaurant, so we enjoyed Bourdeaux for a cheese plate and wine (so much delicious cheese!) and had the pleasure of meeting Eric. Great service, great conversation. We asked about the awesome Pablo who took care of us during our first trip to Secrets Maroma. Eric told us that Pablo had been a great trainer for the newer servers and was very knowledgeable. We had a delicious meal at Himitsu – the Pan-Asian restaurant. Alan, Antonio, Jose, and Miguel made the hibachi experience fun and entertaining. We have enjoyed all of the restaurants over our many stays. I realize some say that they didn’t care for a certain restaurant or food, but we all have our own preferences and tastes, so I encourage you to try them all – even if you just have the appetizer or dessert. Once or twice a week, the resort has dinner entertainment and a grille buffet outdoors. There are many delicious choices and the entertainment is really great, so don’t miss out on this event. No one will notice that you returned to the dessert station three or four times. There are many choices for entertainment at night. Something new this trip was the “employment” of a hawk to keep the bird population under control and a man with a big (sweet) dog (on a leash) patrolling the property to keep the Coatis from overtaking the pool area. We didn’t mind the Coatis, but they can be little pizza thieves if left to their own devices. What do we do all day? Eat, drink, lounge and swim at the pool or beach (treat yourself to a cabana or Bali bed), eat (pool pizza and hamburgers are delish, and there is a lunch grille service that has wonderful grilled meats, chicken, seafood, and cold side dishes). We walk along the beautiful soft, white sand beach (voted the #1 beach in the world five years in a row), read (there is a team that comes around to clean your sunglasses at the pool!!), snack (Coco has 24/7 coffees, teas, yummy chocolates and sweet treats, little sandwiches), visit the spa for a massage (the hydrotherapy session was surprisingly relaxing, the massage therapists are heavenly!), dinner, cocktails, play pool at the sports bar, talk to other guests in the hot tub, at the bars, and in the pool area. There are activities scheduled all day that look like so much fun but we have never made it that far from the water. My husband and I were celebrating our birthdays. One evening we returned from a day at the beach to find a chocolate cake, champagne, rose petals on the bed, and a bubble bath waiting for us! Many thanks to our concierge, Guillermo, and team for making that happen. It was a fantastic surprise and made us feel pampered. On our last day – after checkout and before our shuttle to the airport - we returned to the Spa for a hydrotherapy session. They have everything you need to get ready – shower, lotion, hair dryers – even a little machine that pulls the water out of your swimsuit. Upon departure, grab a box lunch from Coco to enjoy at the airport instead of airport food – or if you’re Preferred, swing by the Preferred lounge for a light meal, a final cocktail, and to stay cool. Also a shout out to Zayda, our UVC concierge. She made sure we had everything we needed, arranged for that daily room service coffee delivery, had another birthday cake sent to us at Bordeaux, and checked on us any time we were near the main lobby (which is another fantastic place to spend some time before or after dinner, enjoying the signature fragrance of the resort and a refreshing cocktail). We are already scheduled to return in late summer and can’t WAIT to hear “welcome home.”

The greatest people are the Mayan people. We love them most about this area. Roger, Bramdon, Edy, Mauricio, Ugo, Manning and sooʻoo many others Bernardo, Bernice, Carlos Irlanda, the cooks, servers, housekeeping, all pool staff concierge staffs reservations ...it does not end there. This place, Secrets Maroma Beach Resort is an outstanding place to vacation? You roll the dice with the seaweed, but everything else makes up for it when there is seaweed. They do maintain it extremely well compared to nearby resorts! And there are the beautiful pools and staff. You will go home a happy camper- planning your next trip before you even get home! We are! Love to all of you. 💕

Great food, kindness and service, location super relaxing and fun ao very good vibes in general