Wonderful Resort

The resort is very accessible for anyone with mobility issues. Rooms are very clean and spacious. We enjoyed the restaurants and room service. The preferred club was worth the extra cost. Room location and the butler service was excellent. The beach is an enjoyable walk. Staff were very friendly and accommodating. Resort is 1.5 hours from the airport that is the only downfall.

Amazing resort

Secrets playa Esmeralda was a big surprise for the better. Really nice hotel ( we stayed on the preferred area and it is worth it for sure ). Great drinks great food and very attentive stuff. The beach was really nice and if you walk to the left the water is like a pool.

It’s all in the details!

We visited in late July and the resort was beautiful. When it comes to details, management and staff thought of everything. Our room included a walkout pool overlooking the main pool area. The cleaning and service staff did everything to make our stay extra special. I will surely visit and recommend this resort to others!

Secrets Esmeralda

Beautiful area of the country. Still undeveloped. Best beach so far. Food average and some ala cartes good and some not so good. Buffet good variety and staff are excellent. Front desk staff are careless and not very helpful. They tried to over charge for the preferred package not knowing I had researched how much it was from here. Wanted crazy money for something I didn’t think was worth. All you get is top tier liquor by their standard, extra restaurant and a butler. All of which have  [... read more]no value to me. Their area is gated off but not on the beach itself. The resort is new and nice but the area is being developed with other resorts planned already which are even higher end. Good to visit now to see the beautiful beaches as not sure how long that will last. Would go again but would try other resorts planned already. Overall a solid 4 star. Also was our anniversary and nothing special was done. Maybe the butler might have if I had chosen to pay thousands for preferred but not really worth a bottle of booze, banner and maybe a bubble bath set up.

Total bliss & happiness

Despite multiple mixed reviews, we went with out gut to Secrets Michès and loved it. We received a warm and genuine service since arrival. Top coktails and drinks all day with Mildred, Dani and Pedro at pool bar and with Yafreisy at Lobby bar-- best Lemon Drop and Maracuya Martini we ever tried. Good food at main restaurant lead by Chef Alejandro and service by several team members like Yohan. Overall fantastic value. A la carte restaurants were good: we were surprised by the Mediterranean food  [... read more]Meraki and by Tierra which were our favorites. Did not wait long for a table at any of them. Fair live music and shows with the entertainment teams who work really hard and do a fantastic job. To the complaining Karens and Kens saying they paid for more than you get: if you are paying less than $1,000 USD per night per person, you are not overpaying!

Amazing Resort

We had an absolutely amazing experience at Secrets Playa Esmeralda from beginning to end. The resort is stunning, beautifully maintained, and the beach is truly breathtaking. From the moment we arrived, the staff made us feel welcomed, relaxed, and completely taken care of. The food was excellent with so many great options, and every restaurant we tried was delicious. The service throughout the resort was exceptional — friendly, attentive, and genuine. Our room was beautiful, clean, and very  [... read more]comfortable, making it easy to fully unwind and enjoy the vacation. We especially loved the relaxing atmosphere, the entertainment, and how every detail seemed thoughtfully planned. Whether at the pool, beach, restaurants, or spa, everything exceeded our expectations. Considering this is a new resort just opened August 2025 we did not experience any inexperience. Everybody was professional, friendly, enthusiastic, helpful, and super friendly. This was one of the best vacations we’ve had, and we would absolutely return. Highly recommend Secrets Playa Esmeralda to anyone looking for a luxurious, relaxing, and memorable getaway in the Dominican Republic!

Beautiful Beach!

Disappointed in Resort with it being a New Resort it was run down. It didn't look New at all. Leaking ceilings in many Hallways. Broken stair rails. Mold on outside of some buildings. With water leakage, many hallways had lots of water on floors that wasn't even cleaned up. The secure lock on room door didn't work. The food was okay. Buffet was ALWAYS COLD. Not a good buffet at all. A few of the restaurants were okay but far from our expectations for being a Secrets. Also, we paid for Pre [... read more]ferred Club. That didn't mean anything there. There was no identification between reg. Guest and preferred. They used the pool and the bar. Only thing they couldn't do was go into the preferred Restaurant. That was a big joke there. Also for being an adults only Resort.......The centre square entertainment was for Dreams as well so Always had lots of kids as well as in Amphitheater lots of kids. The staff was phenomenal, we enjoyed them so much. Special thanks to our Butler SIMON, he was amazing. I love Secrets, but disappointed in this one.

Amazing resort!

The swim out with partial ocean view - the best room ever! Awesome beach for walking! The food was amazing!! Delicious cocktails! Great aqua fitness sessions. Excellent staff and service. Wish I was still there!

Secrets Playa Esmeralda Secrets Preferred club section. Oceanview Junior Suite

Fairly new hotel. Still encountered maintenance items. Make up room and do not disturb buttons not functioning. Reported and repaired 2 days later. Receptacles for hair dryer in bathroom not powered. Reported, never repaired. Specialty restaurants, service very slow, with the exception of Windows. Walked out of Dona Altagracia after 90 minutes , still no main course. Reception areas very efficient. Room and balcony quite spacious, pool excellent. Occupancy about 65%, so no problem with chairs [... read more] and palapas, in spite of the 6 am towel claimer jerks. Our concierge, Claudio, was very helpful and good natured. Others of note, Kelvin the bartender at the pool bar and Brenda with the entertainment team who was seen AND HEARD everywhere. I rate the food as fair with the exception of the roast beef at the Market cafe for lunch time. Best I have ever had!!!

Lots of room for improvement

Pros: beautiful facility and pools. Friendly staff. One of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean. Cons: Obvious lack of supervisory level of attention to detail, to ensure the small details that make a holiday special are not overlooked. Room was not completely ready even though we were a late day arrival. Room was missing amenities that were advertised, and that we heard from other guests had been supplied to them. Pool area for Preferred clients is completely enclosed by day beds, so th [... read more]at anywhere else you sit you are behind a wall of cabanas with no view of pool. Impossible to secure a cabana unless you are prepared to get up at 4:30 am to place towels. Restaurants are incredibly slow during dinner hour. 2-3 hours Either you plan to eat, or do a show. Impossible to accomplish both. Outside dining is very loud, as the restaurants all encircle the nightly outdoor entertainment area. Loud thumping music while you may be expecting a quiet romantic dinner. Not happening! No control of migration of guests from Dreams resort. Many were using the pool and amenities of the preferred Secrets side. The 90 minute drive from the airport is bad enough, but the provided transportation leaves much to be desired. Driver going far too fast given traffic and road conditions. White knuckle drive while driver was using cell phone and passing vehicles in an extremely reckless manner. Would we return? NO

Beautiful resort - terrible service - terrible food

Although the grounds and room where beautiful - the staff could not speak English. We waited for up to 4hrs in line to get into restaurants and even when we did we never got 3/4hrs of what we ordered, and when the food came it was cold. Many people we spoke with were very upset and the amenities, some even went as far as to rent a car and drive into town which was 1.5hrs to get some food. When we arrived the hounded us to take a presentation to buy into there preferred packages and were extre [... read more]mely rude (Virginia) and called me low life if you didn't purchase it. We purchased this resort to be children free and there were children from Dreams resort running around. In all we had the worst vacation. Also, our transfers didn't come to pick up up at the resort which resulted in us paying 280.00 USD to get back to the resort. I would not recommend this resort to anyone for now. Maybe in a few years when they have staff and better food it might be better. I am looking for compensation for the money we put out of our pocket.

Beautiful Resort but Needs Improvement

The resort is new, and it’s understandable that things are still being worked out, but there are definitely areas that need improvement. Dinners took nearly two hours from start to finish, and some guests had to wait hours just to get into a restaurant. While the staff are generally friendly and trying their best, it’s clear that many of them still lack proper training. We ran into a serious issue with glass on the pool deck—unfortunately, I found it by stepping on it and cutting my foot. Mos [... read more]t of the staff didn’t seem too concerned, except for Mildred, the pool bartender, who was excellent and genuinely cared. The onsite doctor was also great and helped clean the wound, but over the next few days, we continued to notice glass around the pool area with no one cleaning it up. Our room also flooded on the second day due to a shower drain problem that maintenance had supposedly fixed. To their credit, the staff and concierge were quick and helpful in moving us to a new room. Despite the issues, the resort itself is beautiful, and you can tell they’re working hard to improve. The beach is amazing—a bit wavy, which I actually enjoyed, and if you prefer calmer water, you can just walk a few meters down the beach. Overall, it’s a gorgeous property with potential, but the service, maintenance, and safety standards need attention before it truly lives up to the Secrets brand.

Nice Resort

Suggestions as I hate to say Complaints: Beds are only Doubles but has Queen or King Size sheets. We were 3 in the room an my wife and I were in one and I rolled out and bruise a rib when I hit the frame. Then I got caught up in the sheet one night and fell hurting my knee cap and elbow - lots of blood. Now the 1st shower that I took the bathroom flooded due to the drain being plugged. Call maintenance to fix and the maid to clean. The divider sharing the toilet to the shower should be caul [... read more]ked as water seeps into the toilet area and I slipped catching myself but it hurt. Not all bars/restaurants had 0 alc. beer. Staff is new and it's understandable that they can get things wrong which they did but was quick to fix. We had the same bed and I had my Chair by the pool for most of the week until someone from the other side took it as they hade different color towels. Others were bragging at the pool bar that they snuck over to drink better liquor. no one was checking. Not all Restaurants were opened and we had a few long waits. 40 to 50 minutes.