An Authorized Specialist For
SECRETS
RESORTS & SPAS
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Apple
VACATIONS
Doylestown Travel · Since 1985
Trusted Names. Real Specialists. No Guesswork.
Why Use a Travel Specialist?
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36 Questions, Answered Honestly
Secrets Resorts FAQ
Tap any question for a full answer, including a supporting photo — covering safety, location, crowds, our take on Huatulco, and everything our specialists help plan: payments, documents, packing, insurance, groups, and more.
Which resort has the best beach?
For pure beach quality, Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana and Secrets Maroma Riviera Maya are consistently the top two across the entire portfolio — wide, soft, pale sand and calm, warm water. Secrets Cap Cana’s Juanillo Beach is a close third and arguably more private given the gated community setting. If beach quality is your single deciding factor, start your search with one of these three.
Which resort is least crowded?
Secrets Huatulco, by a clear margin. It’s the smallest, most under-the-radar property in the portfolio, set among Huatulco’s nine coves — many of which see almost no foot traffic outside the resort’s own guests. If avoiding crowds is your top priority, this is our first recommendation every time, ahead of any property in Cancun or Punta Cana.
Is Montego Bay safe?
The Montego Bay resort corridor where Secrets St. James and Wild Orchid sit is heavily geared toward tourism and security — both properties are gated with private beach access. As in any destination, we recommend staying within resort-arranged transportation and excursions rather than independently exploring unfamiliar areas after dark.
What does a specialist actually do?
More than people expect. Before you book, we narrow 17 properties down to the two or three that actually fit your trip, based on what you tell us about pace, budget, and priorities. After you book, we monitor your reservation for any change that benefits you. During your trip, if anything goes sideways — a room issue, a flight delay, a question about an excursion — you call a person who already knows your reservation, not a general call center. That’s the value of having a specialist backed by Hyatt and Apple Vacations standing behind your booking.
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SECRETS RESORTS
Where Will You Go?
Click any destination to send us a quote request — we’ll find you the best available property and pricing.
Montego Bay
Jamaica · Caribbean
Huatulco
Mexico · Oaxaca
Punta Cana & Cap Cana
Dominican Republic
Los Cabos
Mexico · Baja California Sur
Puerto Vallarta
Mexico · Pacific Coast
Riviera Maya
Mexico · Playa del Carmen
Expert Analysis · 40 Years of Firsthand Research
How Secrets Compares to Other Luxury Brands
Rated by Doylestown Travel based on firsthand visits and 40 years of client feedback — not marketing materials.
| Brand | Price Tier | Food Quality | Beach / Location | Age & Condition | Best For | Adults Only? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secrets ResortsHyatt · Unlimited-Luxury | $$$$ | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | Excellent · Hyatt Standard | Honeymoons · Anniversaries | Adults Only 18+ |
| Sandals ResortsUltra All-Inclusive · Couples | $$$$–$$$$$ | 4.4/5 | 4.4/5 | Excellent · Refreshed Yearly | Scuba · Adventure Couples | Couples Only |
| Dreams ResortsHyatt · Family Luxury | $$$$ | 4.4/5 | 4.3/5 | Excellent · Hyatt Standard | Families · Sister Brand to Secrets | All Ages Welcome |
| Paradisus (Meliá)Ultra-Luxury · The Reserve Tier | $$$$+ | 4.6/5 | 4.6/5 | Ultra-Modern · Flagship | Ultra-Luxury · VIP | The Reserve Adults Section |
| Breathless ResortsHyatt · Party Atmosphere | $$$ | 4.1/5 | 4.0/5 | Modern · Lively | Nightlife · Younger Crowd | Adults Only 18+ |
| Impression by SecretsHyatt · Endless Privileges | $$$$$ | 4.7/5 | 4.6/5 | Flagship · Butler Service | Milestone Trips · Butler Service | Adults Only 18+ |
Ratings reflect Doylestown Travel’s firsthand assessments and aggregate client feedback across 40 years of bookings. Not sure which brand is right for your trip? Call Charley at 888-365-3070 — one conversation and we’ll tell you exactly which resort fits your travel style and budget.
How Secrets Compares
Secrets vs Sandals vs Couples Resorts
The honest comparison for travelers choosing between the top adults-only all-inclusive brands.
Brand
Secrets Resorts Hyatt Unlimited-Luxury
Sandals Resorts Ultra All-Inclusive
Couples Resorts Jamaica Specialist
Iberostar Joia Aruba Eagle Beach
Price Tier
$$$$
$$$$–$$$$$
$$$–$$$$
$$$
Couples Only?
Adults Only 18+
Yes — Couples Only
Couples Only
Adults Only
Scuba Included?
Discounted, not free
Yes — Fully Included
Yes — at select properties
Not included
Destinations
Mexico · Caribbean · DR
7 islands · 17 resorts
Jamaica only · 4 resorts
Aruba only
Best For
Romantic luxury · Destination variety
Adventure couples · Divers · Most included
Jamaica devotees · Authentic Caribbean
Beach-first · Hurricane-season travel
We book all four brands. Not sure which is right for your trip? Call Charley at 888-365-3070 — one conversation and we’ll tell you exactly which resort fits your travel style, budget, and the experience you want.
What Our Clients Say
Real Travelers. Real Vacations.
Verified reviews from Doylestown Travel clients — collected over 40 years of vacation planning.
“The best vacation of our lives. Secrets Cap Cana’s Preferred Club butler was available around the clock, and the food was extraordinary. Charley told us exactly which room category to book. Worth every penny.”
“We went back and forth on Puerto Vallarta versus Cancun for weeks. Charley walked us through the actual difference — the mountains, the cooler Pacific water, the real town feel — and it was exactly right for our anniversary.”
“Charley recommended Secrets Huatulco when every other agent kept pushing Cancun. Best decision of the trip — we had an entire cove to ourselves most afternoons, and the mezcal tasting was unforgettable.”
“Teodoro at Impression Moxché alone was worth the trip — seven courses, wine pairings, our server walked us through every dish. The whole property felt like a five-star hotel that happened to be all-inclusive.”
“Went deep-sea fishing out of Cabo on our second day — landed a striped marlin, released it, and came back to the resort in time for dinner. Charley arranged the whole charter before we even left home.”
“Charley found us a swim-out suite at Secrets Tides that wasn’t even listed online yet. Same beautiful resort, a far better room, and someone who actually picked up the phone when we called. I will never book any other way.”
Your Secrets Resorts Specialist
Meet Charley
We’re not a call center. We’re not an algorithm. Charley personally visits the resorts they recommend — walking the beaches, eating the food, testing the service levels, and photographing conditions so you know exactly what to expect before you arrive.
When you call us, one of us picks up. When something goes wrong on your trip, we answer. That’s been true since 1985 and it remains true today.
A Closer Look
Notes on Each Coast
Four short essays on the destinations that ask the most questions — written from firsthand visits and conversations with the specialists who know them best
Jalisco, Mexico
Puerto Vallarta The Authentic Mexico
Cobblestone streets, a working fishing fleet, and a town that existed long before resorts arrived.
Most of the Riviera Maya was built for tourism. Puerto Vallarta was not — it was a fishing village on the Pacific coast long before the first hotel opened, and it has never entirely let go of that identity. The Malecón boardwalk still curves past bronze sculptures and open-air seafood stands rather than chain restaurants. The cobblestone streets of the Zona Romántica climb steeply into the hills, lined with bougainvillea and ironwork balconies that look more like Old Spain than a resort marketing brochure.
This is the Mexico people picture when they imagine Mexico — not because it has been staged that way, but because it largely has not been staged at all. Secrets Vallarta Bay sits at the edge of this authenticity rather than apart from it: close enough to the Pacific’s dramatic mountain backdrop and the town’s genuine culture, far enough from it to remain a private, adults-only retreat.
"You can spend a morning at the resort pool and an afternoon haggling over silver jewelry in a four-hundred-year-old market square."
The water here runs cooler than the Caribbean side, and the surf carries more energy — this is the open Pacific, not a sheltered bay. What you receive in exchange is mountain scenery that rises directly behind the beach, sunsets that turn the entire bay copper and rose, and a sense of place the more manufactured resort corridors simply cannot offer.
Secrets Vallarta Bay · Pacific Coast
Mountain Backdrop Old Mexico
Baja California Sur, Mexico
Los Cabos Desert Meets the Deep
Where the Sonoran Desert runs straight into the sea, and the fishing is the best on the planet.
Cabo is dry. Genuinely, dramatically dry — this is the tip of the Baja California desert, all sun-bleached rock and cactus silhouettes against an impossibly blue sky, with almost none of the lush green humidity that defines the Riviera Maya. The heat here is a clean, arid heat, and it holds nearly year-round: cloudless skies, brilliant light, and an ocean that turns a deep sapphire by midmorning.
What makes Cabo extraordinary is what lies beneath the surface. The town sits at the exact point where the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean meet the warm, nutrient-rich waters of the Sea of Cortez — a confluence the explorer Jacques Cousteau famously called “the world’s aquarium.” More than 800 species of marine life move through these waters, and the result is a fishery that has no real rival anywhere in the world.
"Cabo San Lucas is recognized globally as the marlin capital of the world — blue, black, and striped marlin, landed in numbers no other port can match."
The Bisbee’s Black & Blue, the world’s highest-paying marlin tournament, is staged here every October for good reason: the grounds at Gorda Bank and the Pacific-side deepwater channels reliably produce blue and black marlin exceeding several hundred pounds, alongside dorado, wahoo, yellowfin tuna, and the acrobatic roosterfish prized by inshore anglers. Whether or not you fish yourself, the daily ritual of the fleet returning to the marina — flags raised for every marlin released — is one of the more memorable sights in the entire Secrets portfolio.
Sea of Cortez · Where Two Oceans Meet
Desert Climate World-Class Sportfishing
La Altagracia, Dominican Republic
Secrets Cap Cana The Best of the Best
Within the Secrets portfolio, this is the property we recommend first — and most often without qualification.
If a single property had to represent everything Secrets does well, it would be this one. Secrets Cap Cana Resort & Spa sits inside the gated Cap Cana community on Juanillo Beach, widely regarded as one of the finest stretches of sand in the entire Caribbean — fine, pale, and so soft underfoot it has become something of a local point of pride. The privacy of the gated setting is apparent the moment you arrive: this is not the open, bustling Punta Cana strip, but a private enclave with a noticeably lower density of resorts.
Inside, suites begin near 600 square feet, finished with rich wood furnishings and soaking tubs for two. Nine restaurants spanning global cuisine — fresh seafood, Mexican, French, Italian — give Cap Cana one of the more ambitious culinary programs in the portfolio, and the Preferred Club tier adds a private lounge, a dedicated pool, and a level of attention that distinguishes a very good resort from an exceptional one.
"It is, simply, the property we send our most discerning travelers to first."
This is our standard answer for milestone honeymoons, anniversaries, and any traveler whose primary criteria are privacy, beach quality, and a margin of luxury above the rest of the portfolio.
Juanillo Beach · Cap Cana
Our Top Recommendation Honeymoon Standard
Uvero Alto, Punta Cana
Secrets Tides The Newest Address
A recent addition to Punta Cana, and already admired for its design sensibility.
Secrets Tides Punta Cana is the most recent property to join the brand in the Dominican Republic, opened along nearly 800 feet of palm-studded beach in the quieter Uvero Alto stretch of coast. What distinguishes it from the moment of arrival is the architecture: a winding, open-air lobby that frames the ocean before you have set down a single bag, with covered walkways threading through mature tropical landscaping rather than the more conventional hotel-block layout found elsewhere in the portfolio.
The 668 suites are arranged to feel like a residential community rather than a single uniform tower — each cluster carries its own visual identity, a deliberate design choice that gives the resort a sense of variety uncommon at this scale. It has earned AAA Four-Diamond recognition, and the design language throughout — modern Caribbean décor, clean lines, considered lighting — reads as noticeably more current than several of its longer-established siblings.
"For travelers who want everything Secrets does well, presented with a fresher design vocabulary, Tides is the property to watch."
Nine restaurants and eight bars round out the offering, including a South American-inspired dining room and a Mediterranean-Pan Asian fusion concept that has quickly become a guest favorite.
Secrets Tides · Uvero Alto
New Arrival Design-Forward
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A Feature on Dining
Secrets Moxché & Impression Moxché The Table, In Detail
Of every property in the portfolio, the dining program at Secrets Moxché and its adjoining sister, Impression Moxché, deserves its own conversation. Together, the two resorts share fourteen distinct restaurants.
Secrets Moxché sits in the Riviera Maya, a short ten-minute drive from Playa del Carmen’s Fifth Avenue, with views toward Cozumel on a clear day. Its adjoining property, Impression Moxché by Secrets, occupies the adjacent ground as a smaller, more elevated 198-suite address — and the two function, in practice, as a single estate. Guests of Impression Moxché move freely between both resorts’ restaurants; guests of standard Secrets Moxché enjoy the eleven venues on their own side, plus elevated treatment at the Mexican and Asian restaurants.
The result is one of the most ambitious dining programs Secrets operates anywhere — fourteen restaurants in total, spanning French, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Pan-Asian, and fresh seafood, with three venues reserved exclusively for Impression guests.
AAA Five Diamond
Teodoro
Author’s Choice Tasting Experience
A seven-course rotating tasting menu, paired with wine, served overlooking the ocean. A private, formal-dress dining room that changes its menu nightly under an open-kitchen concept. The supplement is typically waived for Impression guests on 5+ night stays.
Impression Exclusive
Seaside Beach Club
Beachfront Grill, By Day & Night
Widely regarded by guests as the best food on property — sourdough pancakes and burrata toast at breakfast, à la carte grilled specialties at dinner, all served steps from the tide.
Impression Exclusive
Cielo Rooftop
Rooftop Bar & Restaurant
A rooftop infinity pool, ocean breezes, and a live acoustic duo most evenings — open from breakfast through evening cocktails with sweeping views toward Cozumel.
Mexican
SeaSoul
“Two Souls” Taco Tasting Bar
Authentic Mexican à la carte cuisine built around a taco-tasting bar with tableside tequila and mezcal flights. The tortilla soup draws particular praise.
Italian
Portofino
À La Carte Italian, Wine Cellar Dining
Classic Italian dishes built from the freshest ingredients, with a secluded wine cellar available for private, dedicated-menu dining.
Pan-Asian
Southeast Asia on Your Plate
Over-Water Terrace Dining
Eclectic Southeast Asian fare, plant-based menu available, served on a bamboo-shaded terrace built directly over the water.
French
Chez Isabelle
Romantic, Elegant À La Carte French
Gourmet French specialties in a refined, intimate dining room. Portions favor presentation over volume.
Market-Style
The Market Café
Farmer’s-Market Buffet, Breakfast & Lunch
A casual buffet styled after a farmer’s market. The Tuesday “Roads Through Mexico” event highlights regional specialties.
All restaurants operate on a rotating weekly schedule based on occupancy; not every venue is open every night. Guests of Impression Moxché receive priority access and elevated tasting experiences at every venue listed above.
All 17 Secrets Properties — Expert Guidance on Every One
Every Property, By Region
Our honest assessment of each property — what makes it special, who it’s right for, and which room categories are worth the upgrade.
Mexico — Caribbean Coast
Riviera Maya & Cancún
Cancún Hotel Zone
Best for Energy & Location
Contemporary and central, directly within the Hotel Zone strip — convenient to nightlife and dining beyond the resort gates. Best for: first-time Secrets guests who want the full hotel-zone experience.
Akumal
Calm Water · Sea Turtles
Calm, protected water known for resident sea turtles and easy snorkeling, in a more residential
stretch of coast. Best for: couples who want a quieter Riviera Maya
base.
Maroma Beach
Most Photographed Beach
One of the most photographed beaches in Mexico, with excellent snorkeling immediately offshore. Best for: beach-first travelers.
Feature Above
Playa del Carmen
AAA Five Diamond, eleven restaurants, ten minutes from Fifth Avenue. Best for: diners who want range. See the dedicated dining feature above.
Feature Above
Playa del Carmen
The elevated 198-suite sister property, with three exclusive restaurants including the AAA
Five Diamond Teodoro. Best for: milestone trips with butler
service.
Mexico — Pacific Coast
Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos & Huatulco
Feature Above
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco
Mountain-backed and culturally rich. Best for: travelers who want authentic Mexico alongside the resort. See our essay above.
Feature Above
San José del Cabo
Desert climate, dramatic cliffs, and access to the finest marlin fishery on the continent. Best for: anglers and desert-climate seekers. See our essay above.
The Hidden Gem
Huatulco, Oaxaca
Set among nine coves in Mexico’s mezcal heartland — quiet, culturally rich, and often more accessible in rate than its Riviera Maya siblings. Best for: travelers seeking privacy and a quieter pace.
The Caribbean
Jamaica & St. Martin
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Most Spirited · Peninsula Views
Set on its own peninsula with ocean views from three sides — one of the more lively properties in the portfolio. Best for: couples who want energy alongside the beach.
Montego Bay, Jamaica
Weddings · Shared Peninsula
Sister property to St. James, sharing the peninsula and a particular favor among destination weddings. Best for: wedding parties and groups.
Dominican Republic
Punta Cana & Cap Cana
Bavaro, Punta Cana
Reliably Beautiful Beach
A wide, palm-studded beach with calm, shallow entry water — among the most reliably beautiful settings in the portfolio. Best for: families of
travelers and first Caribbean trips.
Feature Above
Juanillo Beach, Cap Cana
Our highest recommendation in the entire portfolio. Best for: honeymoons and milestone trips. See the essay above.
Feature Above
Uvero Alto
The newest address in the country, admired for its architecture and design. Best for: design-conscious travelers. See the essay above.
A note on Secrets Miches: this property sits in a developing region with a different drive time, surrounding infrastructure, and character from the established Punta Cana / Cap Cana cluster above. We discuss it on its own terms, in its own conversation, rather than alongside these three.
All 17 Secrets properties available. Call 888-365-3070 for our expert recommendation on which property and room category is right for your specific trip.
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Ready to Choose Your Secrets Resort?
One conversation with a specialist is worth more than an hour of research. We know every property. We know which room categories are worth the upgrade. And every reservation is backed by the partnership between Hyatt Resorts and Apple Vacations.
Or email reservations@doylestowntravel.com · Doylestown Travel · Est. 1985
Doylestown Travel is an independent travel agency and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Secrets Resorts & Spas, Hyatt Inclusive Collection, AMR Collection, or Sandals Resorts International. “Secrets” and related marks are trademarks of their respective owners. All rates and availability are subject to confirmation at time of booking.