Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres

The best vacation I have ever had. When you invest in a vacation this is what it should be. Every need met before we even knew it was a need. Aside from the ‘upsale breakfast’ (which we declined because we just wanted to get on the beach) everything was a dream. Truly relaxing. Great soft music, nothing too loud or over taking. Best food ever and so many choices. Staff is truly trained to uphold excellent standards. It was hot. It was extremely clean. It was beautiful. It was safe. A/c super cold. Spa was a dream- you feel transported. We plan to return.

Our first time to Mexico and the first experience we encountered was with an Airport scammer - he tried to scam us and tell us our transfer did not wait to take us to the hotel and instead we would have to let him to take us and it would cost $200 and we needed to claim it back with holiday provider - it turns out that after pretending he was on the phone hoping we would give in, he was rumbled by my partner and she asked him to call them. He handed me his phone and they directed me to where they were in the airport. His name was Rafa Lopez Romano - stood all in green camo outfit with a name badge - looking rather official! Totally not anything to do with then hotel but worth mentioning. Location: When we got to the hotel after travelling for 20 hours - they asked us for a £250 deposit to cover for anything we ordered in the resort - even though it was all inclusive and anything we did have we had to pay there and then? Once we checked out, we were told it would be back with us “tomorrow” however after being home for 4 days and chasing the hotel for an update I’ve been told the deposit can take 30 days to arrive back in my account. The whole thing is a load of rubbish!! We had a swim up junior suite which was good. We practically had it to ourselves the whole stay which was fun and although it says no swimming at night, we were told by the front desk that it was okay as long as we were respectful and quiet - which we always were! We visited the beach twice on our stay as it’s not really my thing but we enjoyed it both times we went so would recommend going down and utilising the beach bar. We did one excursion during our stay. We visited Xplor and was the highlight of our holiday. All inclusive water park with rides you may not usually see. We managed to get on everything and some things twice. If we wanted to we could have done everything multiple times but it wasn’t necessary to rush around. This was well worth the money and as I said the highlight of our trip. It says a lot that the highlight of our trip was the only day outside of the hotel… Food and drink: When you enter the restaurants you are greeted by a host. They ask you how many the table is for, your room number, surname and confirm your details. They then take you to your seat where you are promptly met by the airing staff to take your drinks order. There is only 1 breakfast buffet restaurant available for the whole resort. For most of our stay this wasn’t a huge problem as things were replenished quite well. This was the hotel operating at just over 50% capacity. However, This proved a bigger problem when the hotel reached 85% capacity (the weekend for us) as the restaurant hardly had anything. We were told that there was no more bacon and no more eggs as they had run out which is not what you expect from a 5* restaurant. Considering that this wasn’t even full capacity either was a huge shock for us - so does that mean if/when the hotel reached 100% half the hotel goes without anything? In the evening, there are Seven restaurants to choose from. They are Himitsu, Oceana, Seaside Grill, Bordeaux, Portofino, Market Cafe and El patio. The biggest issue that I found was that the hotel closes multiple restaurants every day meaning that if you want to go to a certain one, you need to schedule it into a timetable. So the “All Inclusive” a little far fetched because guests can’t eat at the restaurants they wish to, when they wish to. Oceana - 6/10. the food was okay but not what we had planned to have and due to poor communication from advertising and there was no room at the other restaurants. Not a massive selection and Service was slow. Portofino -10/10. food was amazing! We ate multiple times here during our stay. Food was 10/10 and by far the most appealing selection where it became difficult to choose as everything on the menu stood out - some things were not as nice but solely down to personal taste. Moses was our waiter and he was brilliant! It seemed to get very busy with longer wait times between courses and service but it seemed to only be him covering 10-12 tables which is completely down to the lack of people put on to work. El Patio - 9.5/10. This was the best restaurant we visited. Food was great, selection was great and service was outstanding. Aduro our waiter was the best we had the entire stay. He recommended dishes to go with sauces and his general food information and trivia was fantastic! The only thing is because everything is cooked fresh to order, the wait times are long. We were in the restaurant almost 2.5 hours for a 3 course meal which is quite long. Bordeaux - 7.5/10. the experience actually started quite abysmally. The Host greeted us but was showing someone else to the table so we were told to wait for her to come back and she would seat us - this was not problem at all. The problem then came when a gentleman had come to seat us. D spite us telling him we were already being seen to, he ignored us and continued to ask for our name, room number and how many guests there were. He Continued to sit us and he then left very quickly. We then had our drinks order taken by another person and then a fourth person came over who ultimately became our waiter to continue the service. The whole thing felt rushed, stressed, was unclear and was not what you expect for the calibre of restaurant. The food however was good - oysters were 10/10, scallops were undercooked for me but solely personal taste. Onion soup was lovely although came out absolutely scolding hot so couldn’t eat it without burning yourself. steak was fab as was the duck breast. himitsu - 8/10. We booked a table at the Himitsu restaurant for the live cooking experience. This is a shared table with 8 other guests. We had a guest who was celiac on our table so the chefs accommodated the requirement - which is also good! The experience was fantastic. The chef was fun and very skilled. We tried everything on the menu and it even converted my partner to sushi which ordinarily she wouldn’t eat which was good! Seafood Bar and Grill: -2/10worst restaurant we went to. Fries were cold - ordered “potatoes with truffle and Parmesan” expecting something like square or round potatoes with some kind of topping but no - was just fries and cheese. Mac and cheese was congealed, cold and far too salty. Steaks were awful. Ribeye looked like it had been ran over by a truck and was not evenly cooked parts being almost raw and others being well done and grey. Rump steak had some kind of ball inside which popped in my mouth squirting juice everywhere - ruining a white shirt. Dessert menu looked promising with 5 of the 6 desserts taking my fancy, however due to the poor quality of food and service we decided to leave, leaving practically full meals left on the plate. Service: If you want to go to breakfast, you need to go before 10. Going after this time means that everything is finished. I was told there was no more bacon, no more eggs which is the pinnacle of a breakfast really. Also be careful to not only read the labels of the foods but to actually identify the correct food matches the label. On several occasions the label stated different foods. For example, most serious ones were they had Almonds labelled as rolled oats. It didn’t affect me but something to be cautious of if you have allergies or intolerances. Over the weekend we noticed a huge influx of American Guests which meant the service we received from the hotel dropped in quality massively and staff became less attentive. To us as brits, it seemed that the pool concierge and waiters/waitresses around the pool prioritised who they deemed to look affluent or were in bigger groups in the hope to get a bigger tip. We waited almost 40 minutes for someone to come over and take our drinks order despite trying to get their attention in the politest way possible just to be ignored. On a couple of our days there was a foul smell similar to that of a dirty toilet that filled the air for most of the day. There were also a huge influx of flies around - no matter where you went. We believe the beach was being cleaned or something and this was a results of the seaweed being disturbed. This was something that I suppose couldn’t be helped but was actually quite bad. Entertainment: The entertainment team were fantastic! Johnny, Julio, Cena, Charlene, Celeste and Alejandro always getting people involved and taking the time to chat with you! Daytime Entertainment was good. There was a good variety of things to get involved in as well as some staple every day things that everyone knew happened at a certain time. It also meant that without clock watching you knew roughly what the time was by what was happening during the day. Evening entertainment: Evening entertainment was not as good. There only seemed to be 1 weeks worth of entertainment on repeat meaning that for those staying more than a week like us, we watched the same things over again. So we ended the evenings early on our last few days as didn’t want to watch the same things again. In other hotels we have stayed in, there is usually 2 week rotation to combat that very issue - this is something that would mark the hotel down for us. Shopping: There are a few stores in the resort. You can get most things from basic Knick knacks to suncream to toys and floats. You have the option to pay in either Mexican pesos or US Dollars But beware - the hotel has marked up the items so much, actually the most I’ve ever seen before. We opted to pay in pesos when we went. We had already brought a large bottle of Aloe Gel with us which cost us roughly $8 but the smaller bottle was priced at $30. We bought a float for around $25 and a sun hat that wasn’t priced. It turns out it cost us nearly $70 but by the point we had paid and left and sat and worked it out it was too late. Other issues: We had some issues during our stay. The first was room service. Room service sounds great on at first until you’re kept waiting 1 hour and 30 minutes for it to only arrive cold. This happened more than once and therefore we didn’t use it much which is another cross against the resort. We were told to leave the dishes and cutlery in the secrets box for it to be taken away - and then request a dish collection on the app which we did. 2 days later and the food was still in the secrets box which is poor. Half way through our stay, we were kept up all night by trollies being wheeled past our room pretty much every half an hour on the dot - this is also something that you do not expect when you pay the amount we did. Upon reporting these issues, extremely poor attempts were made to correct them such as giving us a bottle of wine that we could’ve got from the bar and writing our surname on a dessert in white chocolate which was actually embarrassing as was presented to us on the cooking table night at Himitsu and everyone started clapping assuming we had just got married. In Summary, it feels like the hotel is still in their teething issue stage and therefore the price should reflect this. The hotel at first glance is amazing. The look, the ambiance, the service and the location. However, it seems to be all style and lacking substance and thought in the right areas. The entertainment looked like it lacked budget in areas. Not worth coming for longer than a week and not worth the money we paid for the duration. We Actually left quite disappointed and probably wouldn’t recommend it.

This resort completely exceeded our expectations. From the moment we arrived, we felt like we had found a little piece of paradise. The resort is incredibly cozy, peaceful, and relaxing. The food was also a wonderful surprise — it exceeded our expectations, with great quality and plenty of delicious options. What really stood out to us was the service. The entire team was amazing: everyone was always in a good mood, friendly, attentive, and ready to help. They were often one step ahead, anticipating what we might need before we even had to ask. Our room was also perfect. Everything felt new, clean, bright, and beautifully maintained, with a lovely fresh scent. It was such a comfortable and relaxing place to come back to after enjoying the resort. Overall, we had an unforgettable stay. This resort truly made us feel like we were in a little piece of paradise. We would absolutely love to come back!

My husband and I just got back from celebrating our honeymoon and first anniversary here, and honestly, words can’t even describe how amazing it was. From the second we walked in, the staff treated us like actual royalty.Our butlers, Eddy and Eduardo, were easily the absolute highlight of the trip. They made sure every single detail of our stay was perfect. They even sent us a text after we checked out just to make sure we got home safe and told us they already missed us—which was very thoughtful! The rest of the team was just as warm and genuinely excited to celebrate our milestone with us. Huge shoutouts to Victor at concierge and Leonardo, who cooked us the most incredible, private romantic sunset dinner right on the beach. the anniversary night surprises after our romantic beach dinner blew us away. We came back to our room to find flowers all over the bed, the outdoor jacuzzi filled with bubbles and floating rose petals, a chilled bottle of champagne waiting by the tub, and beautiful soft lighting. They actually did a little surprise wind-down setup for us every single evening, which really set the vibe. We also booked a beach cabana and one at the jungle pool—definitely worth the extra money because the views were breathtaking and so peaceful. We did have a brief hiccup where a miscommunication caused us to miss our excursion. At first, we thought it was going to ruin our day but Anna, a manager in the premium lounge, stepped in and completely saved it. She hooked us up with the best private beach cabana instead, packed with great service and amenities.My only regret is that 5 days wasn't enough! We cannot wait to go back!

Incredible experience to celebrate our fifth anniversary. The resort is absolutely breathtaking with ocean views, multiple pools, outstanding restaurants and entertainment, and amazing staff to top it off. We highly recommend this resort for romance and fun! Honorable mentions for Celeste, Ericka, and Freddy who contributed to our amazing stay with their outstanding service.