Great Resort, Get the Swim-Out!

This was our second trip to Secrets Akumal, so obviously we were already positive about this resort, but this time we brought another couple with us. Pretty much everything we remembered about the first trip in 2019 was the same and we had another great time. The only thing we changed is we splurged for the swim-out suite, which was a big win. We loved the tranquil pool last time as it was separated and quiet, but having that same luxury out your back door was even better. To top it off, room se [... read more]rvice is now handled through the phone app instead of having to call in, so you can easily have them deliver your food out to the back patio and set it up while you are swimming! Honestly, the only downside of this resort is cost (gone up quite a bit since 2019) and the distance from the airport. Flying into Cancun it took us over 2 hours on the airline provided shuttle as we made a few stops along the way. Other than that, love it and already talking about going for our third trip next year.

Secrets Akumal our best resort ever.

We enjoyed our stay so much that we are considering a return trip in August 2027. This was our second time and firstly what helped us to decide to come back were the staff, that’s what impressed us the most. They were always providing exceptional, friendly service. What made me feel at home was our closest staff who remembered our names The grounds were kept immaculate, the food was always fresh, the bars top shelf, the beach and pools are beautiful. Of all the staff, our bartender Bernando  [... read more]was who we had a connection the most. He brought my wife special drinks to her pool chair. I don’t drink so he ordered Almave non-alcohol tequila, hard to come by at the resort. Special mention should be made to the bartender, Alejandro (Alex), Pool/ Beach Waiter Noe, Pool/ Beach Waiter Anna, Pool/ Beach Waiter Franchito (Fransico), and Pool/ Beach Waiter Henry. Restaurant waiter Santiago was the best, Restaurant waiter Xavier was great. Restaurant Maître d’ Isabelle being our anniversary she sat us at beautiful tables. Pool Concierge Jose, Pool Concierge Antonio, Pool Concierge Ruben. They all provided us with fresh towels, adjusted our umbrella, cool wet cloths, cleaned our sunglasses and explained all the daily activities. Newly Promoted Building Concierge Max, he was always offering to assist us in any way. In closing I feel it’s the management who make Secrets the most desirable resort in the Riviera Maya, they set the culture, the standards, and the quality of total guest satisfaction. Regards, Thomas Potter

Luxury Beyond Expectation

Thank you Nicole Deforest for organizing the most amazing vacation! Now for the review: this hotel goes above and beyond to ensure a luxurious vacation. The food was incredible, the grounds were spotless and lush and the employees were gracious and incredibly helpful. Antonio and José, the pool’s concierge did an incredible job of ensuring everyone at the main pool had a clean, fresh towel and shade. I loved the fact that there were no “chair wars” at the pool. Dinners were wonderful. T [... read more]he food at Portofino Restaurant was so delicious, we went back a couple of times. Live music entertained us while we dined. I should also mention that the resort’s restaurants were very diligent regarding food allergies. At each and every restaurant, my husband‘s anaphylactic allergy was noted on his profile. The nightly entertainment was wonderful and there were many choices. I can’t wait to go back!!

Amazing Family Holiday

This was our first time visit to Secrets Akumal Riviera Maya. The private transfer was the way to go. Direct to the resort. We used "All The Way" through our Trip Central travel consultant. Shout out to LOUISE ENDEAN. It was 1 hour 20 minutes from the Airport. Gated resort with efficient security. Was met by a group of lovely ladies and gentlemen to get us checked in. You are given an email/app to access your room key. Daily activities, restaurant menus, resort map etc. all available on the app [... read more]. We had 3 rooms. One was available upon arrival around lunch where we all changed for lunch and the other 2 rooms were available by 3:00 pm. The rooms are spacious, beds are comfortable there is a pillow menu if your require different pillows. Air conditioning in the rooms was excellent. Beach is beautiful and water was very calm. A little bit of seaweed which is expected this time of year but small enough you could step over it. Food was amazing. Excellent Cafe with drinks, sandwiches, desserts 24/7. Buffet Breakfast and Lunch at the market cafe with so much food you couldn't even try it all. Drinks were delicious from the Mango Joes (my favourite) to the Miami Vice. Lots of options. Gluten free options. They are very thorough asking about allergies. Room service with different menu options 24 hours delivered quickly and piping hot. Dinners were great. Highly recommend the Himitsu Hibachi restaurant. They put on a great show. Need to reserve that as soon as you arrive. You can do it through your building concierge. Our Concierge "Shout Out To Billie Rodriguez" for Building 9A was top notch. She made our reservation for my Birthday at Himitsu within an hour of arrival. She sent us the daily activities/menus every day. Checked in frequently on anything she could do for us. She was our go to during our stay. Everyone there goes out of there way to say Hello, How are you, is there anything else I can do for you. The Italian restaurant was delish. The Seaside Grill had amazing Bacon Cheeseburger. The evening poolside shows were fun/lots of food options. They did pool side barbecues near Oceana on some days. Burgers one day, chicken and ribs one day, seafood one day, scallops, shrimp, calamari, salmon, mussels etc. Their Guacamole is to die for. We didn't see too many night shows from the sun and swimming tiring us out. Busy pool (less shade) where the activities and noise are. Quiet pool was our go to lots of shade and pool side drink service. Ricardo and Cruz were top notch service as was the Pool side concierge. Always clearing away and bringing new drinks. We did tip for drinks, meals, housekeeping. Greatly appreciated but not in an expectant manner. My kids want to shout out to the Entertainment Staff at Volleyball Max, Liz, Octavio and Andy. They made the volleyball very fun. Daniel and Oscar and Didi for poolside bingo. We had a wonderful morning on my Birthday doing the Turtle Excursion. Great experience. $40USD. The only thing that was challenging is getting the layout of the resort. A lot of paths and even after 7 days I can't say I was an expert at getting where I wanted to go. I would definitely recommend this resort for a wonderful trip with the sun, beach, excellent food and wonderful people. This will be somewhere I definitely go to again and I will be a repeat booking using Louise at Trip Central.

Outstanding resort and staff

The staff were all so happy to help with anything you needed and were so welcoming. Very nice resort and well worth the stay! Our room was always clean and the food is outstanding! Will definitely be coming back.

The Best All Inclusive

Secrets Akumal was a lovely escape with a long beach and three different pools. Lots of great food options. Excellent personable service everywhere on the resort. Drinks were good quality and the resort was easy to find our way around. Overall great experience.

Relaxing, fun and beautiful scenery!

The hotel overall was beautiful and well kept. The staff went above and beyond to help you with whatever you needed! Check in was lengthy due to our booking being under a different name (wedding name) with Trip Central. My only complaint with this resort is their dining…they do not allow reservations and some nights we would be told it’s an hour plus wait time. Aside from checking in (which wasn’t the resorts fault) and the dining wait times, it was beautiful! I likely wouldn’t return due to the [... read more] distance from the airport but for our wedding, it all worked out perfectly and they had the best price!

Very enjoyable stay

The whole place was so well kept. The grounds were beautiful, right in the jungle with tons of wildlife. Food was some of the best we’ve had and the service was really good. Beach was decent but it got busy. Diving was right next door, super dive team and well priced. The only minor niggle was the pressure to hear the vacation club presentation. Other than that, it was a fabulous visit & we definitely recommend it.

Outstanding Resort

Just got back from Secrets Akumal Riviera Maya. Wow, best time ever. 3 pools to lounge around in. Beautiful beach. Always had a choice of where to eat, never a shortage. Top notch cuisine and service.

Best Resort we have been too

Great resort, amazing and courteous staff and 5* food, with plenty of amazing menu options. This place has it all, Including good accommodation, beautiful grounds and nice sandy beach. The drive from the airport was 1.5- 2 hours, depending on traffic. Air transit rep at the hotel was non-existent. There was no information about the transfer back home found in the travel office at the hotel. Shout out to our tripcentral travel agent! She was great!

Secrets Akumal

Excellent resort. Beautiful grounds. Fantastic service. Great food. Lots of variety and things to do. Loved this place so much that after we returned home, we went back 2 weeks later. Our rep Beth at Tripcentral was terrific

Great resort

The resort is well maintained, the staff are excellent, and the food is very good. There are three pools: very busy, busy and quiet. Each pool and building has its own concierge to ensure all your wants and needs are taken care. We have been to several Secrets, but enjoyed this location the best. This was our third visit.

Amazing Amazing !

We loved Everything about our stay at Secrets in Akumal. The service was TOP NOTCH. The food was great. The grounds were clean and gorgeous. Our room was perfect. Entertainment was good. Did NOT like the 'time share' presentation. They were very very pushy, extremely 'high pressured' and it affected our happy mood (but we got over it)

Another Amazing Stay!

This was our second visit back to Secrets Akumal and we could not be happier with the stay - 10/10 all around, in particular the service. The staff goes above and beyond to make sure every one of your needs are taken care of, particularly around the pool / beach area.

Amazing resort!

We had an Amazing 25th Anniversary trip at this resort! We stayed 9 nights at this beautiful resort and we loved everything about it! The resort is clean and so beautiful that we even booked an anniversary photoshoot on our anniversary. The beach is also beautiful on the Secrets property and it is always being cleaned so there’s not much seaweed during the day. We snorkelled right out front and saw stingrays, lots of fish, starfish, and a turtle. We also paid to go to the turtle sanctuary next [... read more] door to see more turtles and we saw 5! The food was amazing everywhere but we ate at the French and the Italian restaurants for most of our stay because we loved the romantic ambiance and the piano player who played there every night. The most we waited for a table was about 30min. The food on the beach (we had quesadillas, burgers, pizza) was so good (maybe share the quesadillas since they are huge!). The service by absolutely every staff member was outstanding! We usually take note of our favourites but honestly, every staff member was our favourite. They even made sure to say hi to us every time we walked by and they served us like kings and queens. Room service was also fantastic and we didn’t find the wait long at all (unlike some of the other resorts we have stayed at). Honestly, this resort is the best one we have stayed at in our opinion (and we have stayed at over 15 resorts in Mexico). If we had to criticize one thing, it is that we booked an ocean view room but the view of the ocean is more of a partial view. We asked for an upgrade but it would have cost us 300$ US per night so we didn’t bother. We were top floor in building 9 which was close to the restaurants and the view was still nice. We can’t wait to return to this resort!

An Honest Review - This Will Not Be Short But Hopefully Helpful

An Honest Review This will not be short, but I hope it will be helpful. Some things about a trip matter more to others, some don’t, take from this what you will if anything at all. I have been travelling all inclusive for about 20 years now. I have stayed at multiple 5 star resorts and many times in various parts of Mexico. My husband and I just came home from our 14 day stay at Secrets Akumal. We had a swim-up room. We are seasoned travellers and enjoy days of relaxation and peace as [... read more] well as fun loud party times. We experienced both, We had an incredible vacation. I do also have some advice/tips/suggestions etc.for the traveler and the hotel people in charge. Let’s begin: Hotel Itself: Beautiful, very clean, feels like a tropical paradise including iguanas that have their own homes on property with name signs. Hilarious. Hotel Ambiance: The sounds and smells are incredible. I felt like I walked into a massive spa like atmosphere. The instrumental music (this is around lobby areas and the quiet pool) was calming. By smells I mean aromatherapy slight scent not overpowering just enough to know that it’s a clean, well maintained resort. Swim-up room: Clean, well laid out. Love the long counter under the tv. The furniture was comfortable. NOTE: As a tip for any swim up room people - make sure that you place towels on the floor of your room because they patio portion is fine when you exit the pool. I entered the room still damp with a towel on and almost wiped out. Perhaps there should be a mat by the sliding door just in case? Con: The toilet part of the room has a frosted glass bathroom door. Not a big fan of that. TV : I know it may seem silly on vacation but sometimes you do end up in your room to chill out. They had a decent variety of channels that were in English. HBO channels, CBC, BBC, etc. It was really nice to sit in the air conditioning sometimes and just watch movies. Tablet In Room: This is to order room service, tray collection etc. It was great. Very easy to understand, we simply requested our room service, etc and it was sent. Room Service Menu: Pros: You could add details like “extra sauce” to your order which was helpful Cons: - Limited selection unless you’re in the Preferred Club. Even with a swim up suite. Annoying that you could only order certain items for certain times like milkshakes or smoothies. The food rarely arrived hot. 
Patio Con: I’m a night owl who loves to sit outside and read but the patio lights for our room we had no control over so you couldn’t do that at night after a certain time. I don’t remember the time and it’s just a small note in case that’s a big deal to some people.

Room Service Staff: Always friendly and attentive. Housekeeping Staff: We didn’t see them often as we weren’t in the room. They were very friendly and polite when we did run into them. Con: I had to make multiple calls for them to restock the toilet paper. They didn’t until hours later and gave us one roll. Pools/Pool Area: We were primarily at the quiet pool. Pool 1. It was wonderful. The waitstaff at the pool are fantastic. Always attentive, friendly, helpful. We found there were always plenty of towels, drink options, etc. Ibraham was our pool waiter. They had a pool attendant who stopped by to give us cold scented towels and books to read, etc. I cannot say enough about their efforts. Pro: I also want to mention the cleanliness of the pool area. I’ve experienced other resorts where there can be cups, glasses left over, attracting bugs etc. They were on it when it came to clearing items away. Room Concierge: Our room Concierge was Alejandro. This man is absolutely incredible. He made our stay fantastic. He is the epitome of excellence in customer service. Always friendly, knowledgeable, patient and hardworking. I was trying to learn some Spanish while I was there so he would teach me Spanish words. He made us feel like valued guests. He is a wonderful person and excellent at his job. Speaking of the Staff…. Secrets Akumal staff by far exceeded any staff we’ve encountered on our vacations. Every staff member was welcoming, friendly, kind and patient. I would like to specifically mention some. If you are planning to vacation at this resort these people will make your days brighter. Hostess: Marysol - what a wonderful, charming fantastic person. She made us laugh and has excellent customer service. Thank you Marysol ! Ismael at the fire pit bar. Incredible attentive service. Remembers your drink order days later. Always helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. Thank you. Same bar: the female waitstaff. I can’t remember her name I wish I could. She was wonderful as well. The Animacion/ Activities Team: This team is incredibly hardworking, energetic and amazing. Shout outs: (including activities we tried) We did turtle painting with Oliver. He is hilarious. He made our class fantastic. Con: The size of the object - it’s a fridge magnet that is tiny so it’s harder to pain with even small brushes and the activity takes like 10 minutes. Darios or “D” : We took his water aerobics class and archery classes with him. He is phenomenal. He is patient when he instructs, fun and incredibly friendly. D you’re the best! Con: This class should be longer. When you have a group of people you only get to shoot so many times because of time limits. This is something that is a good con because it means the class is so fun it should continue. Diana “tiny but strong” taught us in the Spanish class. What an amazing woman. She is patient, funny and has a heart of gold. She would run into me during our staff and we would practice Spanish. A true gem. We love you Diana. Miguel: For water volleyball he was so encouraging and fun. He took time during out stay to talk about Canada ( where we’re from) and made us feel incredibly welcomed. Thank you Miguel. Renee and the female Chef ( I can’t remember her name I’m sorry) gave us the BEST guacamole class EVER ! Renee was hilarious ! He had guests including us entertained, laughing and learning. Amazing job- thank you both ! Zayel: Manager on Duty: He was amazing. I was suffering from bug bites and nothing was working so he took time to recommend ice and cooling my legs (BIG TIP FOR THAT) which made a world of difference. He went the extra mile to visit with us and see that our stay was wonderful. Any concerns or questions we had he helped us with immediately.His customer service was fantastic. Thank you Zayel ! Bug Bites: If you unlucky enough to have this happen they are not like regular mosquito bites. Scratching them makes them expand. Heat irritates them. A tip I used was icing and/or then literally sticking my legs in the pool made a HUGE difference. Here is A Tip for the Resort: The problem with the activities is that they were limited by amount of people. Many activities had a limit of 6-10 people which is disappointing. For example pool biking. I didn’t get to do it because even though I came early, I missed out because people had already signed up. This is also an issue because the activities are not only limited to how many people, they are not offered every day. The other issue is that some of the classes aren’t long enough - e.g my archery point. And Last Food/Drinks: The Market buffet was for breakfast and lunch only. It was a nice option. The desserts and sweets were exceptional. Italian - the soup was cold, food was nothing exciting. The portion sizes are humorously small. Bordeaux (French restaurant) - The food wasn’t great. Same small portions. Seaside- not a great selection Himitsu - we didn’t get a reservation in time but we didn’t try that hard. El Patio - the menu was unappealing so we left. This is a hotel that should open their buffet for dinner especially for guests who stay longer than a week. After 2 weeks, the same menu got tiresome and we started eating larger lunches at the buffet to that we didn’t have to go to the restaurants in the evening. Coco Cafe: This is a great option for daily coffee and snacks. Great service. Drinks: The service for drinks was excellent. The fruity drinks tasted like they were mixes instead of fresh fruits. Ratings are hard because they don’t individualize - Here’s mine Service - 5 stars Room - 5 stars Food/Drinks- 3 Programs - 5 (when you can go to them) Restaurant Choices - 3 Hotel Cleanliness/Ambiance - 5 Transport to the Airport - 2 At the end of our trip when they ask for a survey I gave the food better valuation because of the buffet element. Ratings can be hard when they are blanket statements.

Good resort but not exceptional

Service and the landscape are the best part of this resort. The staff is very friendly and they really want to make your stay comfortable. The landscape is beautiful, you are practically in a tropical garden. A expansive variety of tropical plants, trees and flowers are everywhere, creating a feeling of privacy and comfort. The food is not the best. The quality of the ingredients are not the best and the vegan/ vegetarian/ gluten-free options are very limited. Not recommended for people who a [... read more]re on a specific diet or are interested in good organic food. The vegetables are not from the organic source. The best dinner restaurant is the Asian restaurant, but again, the vegetarian option is small. The service in the restaurants are very good. The worst aspect of this resort is the beach. Although the sea is very good for swim and snorkel, the beach is too small for the number of tourists in the resort, so it is crowded. Also, there are outside people using the beach, sometime the beach looks like a camping site, not like a five star hotel beach. I saw people with kids using the beach all day long, therefore the beach is not adult- only. Also, being crowded, you might end up inhaling smoke from the smoking people instead of the sea breeze. It is not the right place for a serene day next to the sea. There are some beds build on a part of the beach, just in front of the preferred section, but you have to pay an additional fee for each day when you rent them. There are 3 types of beds: 75$, 100$ and 175$, depending on the vision and distance of the sea. The rooms are outdated, but spacious and comfortable. The room service is excellent. Preferred club is giving you access to a special check-in service and a special bar.

Amazing Resort

The resort was spectacular with amazingly friendly staff. The amenities were numerous and the food at the various restaurants was delicious. The entertainment provided at the resort is top notch! Just off the beach of the resort is a reef with coral and various sea life. The resort is 10 min walk from the local town that has some great restaurants.

Beautiful Resort

Secrets Akumal is one of the best all-inclusives I’ve stayed at. The design and grounds are beautiful. It has a very natural Mexican feel to it. The food and drinks are excellent quality and there is a lot of choice. The service is outstanding and I always felt well taken care of. The only negatives are the seaweed on the beach and the pressure to upgrade. The seaweed is managed as best they can, but be aware of it. I found the sales tactics a little annoying, but if you say no they stop. The  [... read more]Secrets chain is notorious for trying to get their guests to upgrade or buy different things at the resort. Be prepared for that.

Nice resort. But don’t think we will be back

We stayed here for 10 days for our honeymoon. Worth the price? Short answer is no. The pillows are terrible so you should probably bring your own. Rooms are nice. I don’t think the shower has ever been cleaned given the state of the glass door. Which is a big pet peeve of mine. Beach is nice. Lots of seaweed right now so you can’t swim out far at all. Everyone mostly stays at the pools. You’ll need to put a towel on the pool chairs by 8am if you want a seat for the day. They fill up  [... read more]quick. Restaurants are OK. Not very big menus not a lot to choose from. They have dinner buffet but only set them up outside by the pools. So unless you want to eat there with the wind and mosquitos you have to get room service(which is very good) or go to a restaurant. They called us a lot for turn down service. Which I’m not sure why. The rooms have a do not disturb button on them which is nice. We missed our welcome meeting because we felt we didn’t need to go. Our do not disturb sign was on as we had left for breakfast so we didn’t want our room cleaned yet and we see that they came into our room anyways and left us a note saying we missed our meeting. That put a bad taste in our mouth. We spent a lot of money on this trip. They didn’t really seem to care it was our honeymoon. Made comments that we were “young” (28&29) we had our travel agent let them know a head of time that this was our delayed honeymoon. We saw everyone else arriving all week greeted with champagne. We were not lol. We were given a top floor room in villa #7 at the very end. Right across from the club that goes until 1am. Also overlooks the service building which smelt like hot garbage some days. Coco cafe is amazing. Better than Starbucks and 24 hrs. Pools are clean. Service all day is great. I don’t usually leave lengthy reviews like this. But we spent alot for this trip and it was long awaited.