Secrets Papagayo Costa Rica - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5569 reviews

• 

  Good experience but go in knowing this ...

  We enjoyed our stay and like many have said the food and service is very good. The beach is amazing with lots of sand and tons of space. The rooms are looking old with aged and dirty furniture. They definitely need more sun umbrellas for their deck loungers. There is probably only 20% of their loungers that have an umbrella and if you go when it's hot, you can probably only take 30-60 mins in the direct heat. With this in mind, people were getting up early to put their personal items on the best loungers to reserve them. We actually got up at 6:30am to get a good spot and already half the good spots were taken. The hotel/spa does not enforce their own rule of "any personal item left unattended for 30 mins and it will be removed". The other challenge is the corporate events. We were there for 7 days and there were 2 events. Each event had 2 private parties that close off large areas of the resort. Overall, it was a good experience but go in knowing your competing for sun/umbrella real estate and also having to deal with corporate events.

  Apr 15, 2025
• 

  Week in a tropical paradise

  Finding yourself in this resort equals being in a tranquil paradise surrounded by a beautiful bay and lots of nature. A la carte restaurants were amazing and the buffet is open for three meals a day. Lots to choose from but smaller due to the small resort. What adds to the experience is the entire staff, who are friendly, kind and ensure that guests have a wonderful experience. The entertainment team is awesome and there are many activities during the day to choose from. Will be returning for sure and next time will explore the area in more depth. So much to see and experience.

  Apr 15, 2025
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  Horrible Honeymoon Experience here, from start to finish.

  So, my husband and I decided to travel to Costa Rica for our honeymoon. We arrive to Secrets in Papagayo, after a three hour car ride. We were greeted with a cold and infused towel which was a nice touch but that doesn’t cover up the circus that this place is. The check in counter was unpacking their bag of work items (as if they had just arrived to work for the day). That is tacky. You should be completely prepared and ready for guests way before they arrive. Especially if the hotel is marked as 5 stars and is $1,000.00 per night. Next, we were greeted by a gentlemen who was explaining coupons to us and then proceeds to talk for 30 minutes all while trying to sell us a time share type deal for some kind of promotion (which he scribbled on the back on a paper to explain to us). We just arrive and you guys try to sell to us? I thought it was a joke. So then, we decide to walk down to the main area to get a drink and check out the pool and buffet. The buffet food is all yuck. It’s creamy pastas and a bunch of items that look old and some of the items are unmarked so we had no clue what they were. I accidentally scooped fish onto my plate bc it looked like mozzarella. I was disgusted bc 1) I do not eat fish and 2) why was it not marked. Anyways, that aside…. As I don’t want to appear petty…. After this, we go back up to the main lobby to sit at what looked like a bar (and ended up indeed being a bar) but had no liquor set out, was dirty and we were told everything was broken so they couldn’t make us anything other than standard drinks like a rum and a coke. We, once again, brushed that off and tried to enjoy the rum and cokes that were served in plastic diner cups. We proceed to ask the bartender if there were any waterfalls nearby or anything to do in the area and are answered with, “nope”. Then we decide to ask about our room to see if it’s ready to get into yet. Luckily it was and it was about 2:45 at this point. We get checked in and after getting settled we start noticing that the room is dirty. The walls are dirty, the balcony railing is dirty with finger prints everywhere. The shower and bathroom doors are dirty with whatever the last people got on them, there’s a hole in the ceiling, the curtain rod is broken, there are ants on the bathroom counter, mold in the shower, dirty air vents, the list goes on and on. We still even tried to just ignore this all at this point bc we just wanted to enjoy our time here. So we decide to get in our suits and go to the quiet pool. We call for a shuttle and waited 30 minutes just for it to never show. So we say, okay let’s just walk… no big deal. So we walk to the pool and decide to check out the restaurant that we were planning on having dinner at that night. We were told in order to get a reservation, we have to buy a bottle of wine. It was hard not to laugh at this point but we agreed and proceeded to purchase the wine because we wanted the reservation. Afterwards, we asked the hostess if she could please call us a shuttle to get to the quiet pool and she says “no, I can’t”. So again, we walked. We walked to the gift shop area and decided to look around just to be followed around by the cashier as we were shopping. Then we leave the shop and call for another shuttle just to wait 25 minutes for it again, to not show up. Finally, we have had enough and just walked back to our room for the night and ordered room service instead of trekking back up Mount Everest for the third time just to try and get food. We finally had enough and reached out to our travel agent to get us the heck out of here and into a different hotel. This place is honestly the worst hotel/experience we have ever had. The food is not good, the transportation is terrible, and the staff does not even acknowledge you. We will be escalating this to as high up as we can go. We forked over a lot of money to be here and this is just horrendous.

  Apr 15, 2025
• 

  Friendly staff, good food but not as relaxing as you’d expect.

  I will start with that the resort itself is beautiful, the food was amazing and the staff were extremely friendly. However a corporate group came in and completely ruined it. They do not only book for couples they book whoever can pay. This group came in and each day had the two landings in front of the beach blocked for a private event, you couldn’t walk through and they took the majority of the staff with the event. They were deemed “VIP” so they got served first, seated first, shuttles first and we couldn’t book the spa while they were there to keep it open for them to book. They were not all couples, they were vomiting all over the place. Put their garbage wherever and were loud and rude. They kicked everyone out of the quiet pool for their farewell private event and then only had 2 restaurants open for the resort and many of them cooperate group went to those two restaurants as well causing a 40min wait to eat and they did not open the Buffett that night. Prior to their arrival our food was amazing, no wait to be seated, pool was relaxing and events were fun. We went to the Hyatt presentation they told us they are focused on couples and families. Relaxing and reconnecting. This is not the case, they will book anyone who can pay, including a cooperate group. They then let that cooperate group book half the amenities so the guests who paid their own way (the cooperate group won their vacation), stayed longer and were there as a couple had to lose the amenities. I could not believe that secrets would ever do that, I thought maybe it was a one off occurrence however I found out that prior to our arrival there was another cooperate group from Texas who sold air conditioners and it was the same thing for them. Booked half the resort and others couldn’t use those amenities etc.

  Apr 14, 2025
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  Well worn resort

  Well worn resort. Costa Rica is an amazing place to visit. If you like the all inclusive aspect of a resort and hanging at the pool (where you could be anywhere) then maybe this is for you, however, next time we will opt for lodging where the culture and authenticity of the country shine through. The beach area is small so plan on arranging a boat excursion to see the coast line. The shuttle service is adequate but be prepared to wait especially at peak times. The staff was friendly and fun.

  Apr 13, 2025