I stayed at several resorts in Dec. 2023 during my solo Mexico vacation–Secrets Tulum Resort and Beach Club was the second of my three resort vacation property choices.  Generally speaking for the entire vacation, it was the perfect getaway–time to relax at some great resorts, time to clear my head, and time to appreciate some quality properties.

I stayed for three nights at Secrets Tulum which was time enough for me to appreciate what this resort had to offer.  You may not think this is enough time to truly appreciate all of its amenities, however, especially if you want to go back again and again to its beautiful Beach Club.  If you are a follower of the reviews of this Secrets resort, you will note that the reviews have not been favorable in general.  I have a different opinion; despite some frustrations and disappointments, overall I had a great time as a solo traveler and would return to this Secrets resort again under certain circumstances–booking another type of room category, arranging my beach visitation differently, and continuing to adjust my expectations.

Secrets Tulum officially opened Oct. 2023; at the time of my stay in Dec. 2023, the resort was at 49% capacity.  To be honest it felt a lot emptier than that which shows that the resort has been planned to help guests feel uncrowded when at higher capacity rates. Most amenities were available with the exception of an additional pool area on ground level at Building 2; guest rooms surrounding this pool were obviously still being finished as well.  Also, the multiple smaller individual rooftop pools were closed but had water in them.  According to the resort map on the Secrets Tulum website, the Preferred Club pool is supposed to be in this area where the individual pools were located, but I’ve also heard that the Sky pool area (which IS open) will eventually be the Preferred Club pool.  I guess we all will have to wait and see how that turns out.  Right now, as far as I am aware, the Sky pool and bar are still open to all guests.  Check out the daily DJ at this rooftop pool–there is a pool party here once a week.  FYI:  From what I’ve read recently, it appears that the main rooftop pool is now for upgraded Preferred Club guests.  But there are other smaller rooftop pools for others to enjoy.

My shuttle driver had a difficult time finding the resort entrance; it was his first time arriving at this particular resort, but I have to admit that the entrance was nondescript–just a black gate with a small gate house and the Secrets Tulum sign inside the gated area.  I was a non-upgraded guest and therefore had to check-in at the main lobby desk; Preferred Club guests have a separate lounge where their check-in/out occurs.  I was able to check in immediately with no wait at 1 p.m., but my swim-out suite was not quite ready (rooms are typically not ready at most resorts until after 3 p.m. these days).  Guests are told upon check-in to download the resort app for specific resort information such as restaurant and bar hours, daytime and evening entertainment listings, as well as a resort map.  While I found much of the info helpful, the resort map was incredibly unhelpful so don’t count on that to direct you anywhere.  Look for the Secrets Tulum app on the general Hyatt Inclusive Collection app; that’s where all the Hyatt all-inclusive resort info is to be had for not only Hyatt all-inclusives but Secrets, Dreams, Zoëtry, Sunscape, etc. brands as well.

Be prepared for what I call the Timeshare Bait and Switch after you check-in.  A lot of all-inclusive resorts in this area of Mexico do this, so it’s not just Secrets resorts.  At this resort, guests are approached by another staff following check-in and are asked if they can explain their “resort credits” to you and give you a resort tour.  No.  What they really want to do is invite you to a breakfast to get you to sign up for their “vacation club” (that’s the typical description these days), experience a hard sell which typically lasts 3 hrs, and unload a boatload of $$$.  Don’t buy the “it’s only a 45 min. presentation”.  Your vacation time is precious; 3 hrs. of stressful verbal intimidation and wheedling is not my idea of a good time.  But to each his own; just know that is what the approach is really all about and you make up your own mind about what you want to do.  I told the staff member I was not interested in having my resort credits explained (three times), and I was finally let off the hook.  I did get a resort mini-tour afterwards, which was unusual since if you are adamantly not interested they usually are off looking for another new guest to approach.

Since my room was not yet ready, I decided to explore more of the property on my own.  The very obvious feature guests will notice about Secrets Tulum is that ALL BUILDINGS ARE ROUND.  Actually, that’s one of the reasons I decided to book this resort, it looked so unique I wondered what it would be like to stay at a property with such unusual architecture.  While it is indeed a unique feature, I had anticipated it would be easier to get around the property, and that was the last thing I experienced while trying to get from point A to point B.  I felt chagrined at times that I had skipped taking Geometry during all my schooling, I wondered if it would have aided my efforts to find what I was looking for, lol.  But I did the best I could during my stay and with perseverance managed to locate some difficult to find amenities–with the exception of Coco Cafe which I later discovered can be found if you take the hallway to the left before entering the lobby.  Coco Cafe was open 24/7.

While I was there, the biggest resort mystery for many guests was the location of the Bluewater Grill restaurant.  Even the staff member who gave me the mini-tour admitted that this restaurant was hard to find and if I needed help just ask staff to accompany me to the restaurant.  Well, several staff I asked had NO IDEA how to specifically get to this restaurant, but I kept at it and with many wrong turns and dead ends I finally found it in the Preferred Club room section at the back of the resort.  Let me just say that if you find Preferred Club guest room #2114, you have also discovered the building exit to the Bluewater Grill restaurant which was located outdoors. I assume that guests staying in the Preferred Club room sections may have a lot easier time finding their own amenities, but you never know at this resort.  Bluewater Grill Restaurant, while only open for Preferred Club guests for breakfast, was open to all resort guests for dinner.

As long as I’m discussing food, lets continue that discussion.  At least the buffet restaurant was centrally located a floor below the lobby and on the same level as many of the non-upgraded swim-out suites by the main pool and just a short walk from my room.  The buffet was only open for breakfast and lunch, not dinner, so guests must dine at one of the a la carte restaurants or order room service for dinner.  The buffet was small for a resort this size and did not have a self-serve Mimosa/Bloody Mary bar area set-up at breakfast (self-serve morning libation bars are quite common these days at 5 star luxury resorts), but I was impressed with the chilaquiles live cooking station where you could get your chilaquile dish assembled in front of you along with your choice of red or green sauce.  The chilaquiles server typically didn’t show until around 9 a.m., so early birds for breakfast may miss out on that one–there was still the egg station where you could get an egg dish to order.  Look for the breakfast buffet hostess, Yitsyah, who always warmly greeted me and escorted me to my table–a warm-hearted individual who always had a great smile and greeting to start my day.  Lunch at the buffet was fairly nondescript, so I would recommend trying out the Barefoot Grill or Veranda poolside restaurants located at the main pool area.  If you can’t bear to throw on a cover-up, guests can order food from their loungers at the main pool.

In addition to Bluewater Grill, the resort had two additional a la carte restaurants open for dinner that all guests could potentially enjoy.  Both were located on the rooftop between the Sky pool area and the spa/gym building.  Both Jasmine and Oleo a la cartes served an off-menu “amuse-bouche” and appetizer, while Oleo also served a welcome drink when seated.  Just my personal opinion, but Jasmine’s dishes were exquisitely prepared and extremely tasty, while nothing I tried at Oleo appealed to my taste buds at all.  Jasmine’s menu offered both regular and sushi menus, so if I returned to this resort I’d definitely be a repeat diner at this restaurant.  Upgraded Preferred Club guests had their own restaurant, The Grotto, which was located in the Preferred Club section by their own Preferred Club pool.  That restaurant was open from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., so another dinner choice for upgraded guests.  A la carte restaurants do NOT require advance reservations.

Now let’s discuss pools.  Since Secrets Tulum is NOT located beachfront, the resort has tried to do their best in creating an outdoor atmosphere reminiscent of a beachfront setting.  Guests will find fine white sand pretty much everywhere surrounding all pool areas on ground level to make the areas more “beach-like”, white sand is even in the lobby interspersed among seating areas.  Here’s a brief rundown of this resort’s pools:

• There are a total of eight pool areas at this resort including the small pool at the Beach Club and the ground level pool yet to be completed at Building 2.  While pools were swimmable, none of the pools were a comfortable temperature for swimming in December, so I am guessing none are heated.  Let me know if this is an error. If pools are capable of being heated, the resort did not have the pool heaters turned on at the time of my stay.
• Sky Pool.  As previously mentioned, this one had a rooftop location, daily DJ, weekly pool party, regular loungers and Bali beds ($) available.  There was also a large dedicated bar next to the pool. During my stay there were snacks but no restaurant food available in this area; guests must wear a cover-up to visit the poolside lunch restaurants at the main pool.

• Other rooftop pools.  In addition to Sky Pool, there were multiple smaller pools further along the rooftop area.  These pools also had loungers and Bali beds; I imagine that when this area opens the Bali beds will be an extra cost as well.

• Main Pool.  This pool was centrally located on ground level below the rooftop wedding gazebo.  There was no swim-up bar at this pool location, but it did have lots of loungers, shade umbrellas, Bali beds ($), three in-pool small Jacuzzis, and lots of seating available.  The main pool had several pool concierges who helped guests get seated and comfortable in the poolside area of their choice.  Omar was a great help and a very friendly fellow who set up multiple pool towels for my comfort, chatted with me to help me feel welcome since I was a solo traveler, and kept checking back with me to see if I was doing well at my lounger location.  There were two poolside restaurants, Barefoot Grill and Veranda, and both were easily accessible.  Guests who don’t want to wear a cover-up and be seated at these open-air venues can order from their poolside loungers and have food delivered by their wait staff.

• Edgewater Pool.  This pool was located in the center of the property outside of any circular buildings.  While this pool did have the swim-up bar, it was not your typical swim-up bar where you actually sit in the water on a bar stool to have a drink.  Guests can swim up to the actual bar area, but have to get out of the water in order to sit at the bar and order a drink.  There were regular loungers, “nest” loungers, and Bali beds in the poolside area, but the best aspect was being able to swim to two separate pool areas from here–guests can swim in the narrow channel to the cenote pool or to the as of yet unfinished pool area by Building 2.  The sports bar and open-air outdoor evening entertainment area were by the Edgewater Bar.

• Cenote Pool.  As the name implies, the resort has tried to do their best to make this pool area resemble an open cenote with their choice of stone work. Paulina was the main pool concierge here, and at the time I ventured into the area there were no other guests present, so I had a lengthy chat with her about the cenote pool area and life in general.  At the time of my stay, Paulina stated that the Bali beds in her cenote pool section were complimentary, but she did anticipate that once guest numbers increased there would be a charge for them.

• Preferred Club Pool.  Preferred Club rooms and amenities are generally found at the back of the resort; this pool was located in the Building 3 section.  In addition to the private pool, there was a bar and Grotto restaurant which was open for lunch and dinner for upgraded guests only.

• Beach Club Pool.  Guests have to take a 20 min. shuttle to the resort’s private Beach Club to visit this pool.  It’s fairly small, but then the Beach Club in its entirety is small so there wasn’t a lot of room for an extensive pool at this location. No swim-up bar, but the beach bar is just a few steps away.

Let’s talk rooms.  Secrets Tulum offers 300 suites plus a beachfront Villa which has five bedrooms, the option of a private chef, and a rooftop plunge pool of its own.  I stayed in a non-upgraded Jr. Suite Swim-Out Tropical View.  (See my prior blog post and video about this room category by clicking here).  It had a great location near the main pool, buffet restaurant, and easy access to the lobby area upstairs.  Suites were large and roomy, certainly enough space for two adults with room to spare.  There’s more than enough storage space, an under the bed nightlight which was motion triggered so that guests don’t have to turn on additional lighting when getting out of bed at night, and an immense bathroom, probably the largest I’ve seen at an all-inclusive resort, and that even includes The Haven which I thought beat everyone else out in that particular category.  If you’re wondering about bathroom privacy, there was no bathroom door so I would classify it as partial privacy, but there was a separate toilet room door for more privacy options.  Unfortunately, the swim-out pool off my terrace was way too shallow–it only came up to my waist so reading while using the swim-out was uncomfortable (I like to have the option of using the infinity edge of a swim-out pool as my arm prop when I read while I cool off). Oh well, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a more acceptable room category if I returned since there are eight additional choices outside of the Beach Villa!  In general, loved the suite; too bad one cannot spend all their time in a luxurious bathroom like this one, it was gorgeous and I was very impressed.

I can’t finish this resort review without mentioning the private Beach Club!  The resort offered private shuttles which transported guests directly to the Beach Club entrance in Tulum proper.  Shuttles ran every 30 min. with the first shuttle leaving the lobby at 10 a.m.; the final shuttle back from the Beach Club to the resort leaves at 5:30 p.m.  If you miss it you have to take a taxi back to the resort at your own expense.  There were monitors in the resort lobby and at the Beach Club entrance supposedly to show where the various shuttles were on their routes; it looked good but I couldn’t say for sure whether they were accurate or not.  Either get to the lobby early or leave later on in the day for the beach since each shuttle only had about 10 seats, and the first shuttle is typically packed.  I left at 11 a.m. on a Monday to go to the Beach Club and my shuttle was totally full.

When you get out of the shuttle you will be walking for a short distance to the main Beach Club reception area; during my beach visit there were no staff to sign us in or anything, but as you walk further towards the beach area there will be staff who approach various couples/parties and start explaining things about the Beach Club.  While no staff approached me (I can only guess it was because I was a female solo traveler), I just tagged along with a couple I had been chatting with while waiting for the shuttle. That staff will find out where you want to be seated during your beach stay, get your towels, give you a passcode if you want to use the WiFi, and tell you about the Beach Club amenities.  Those amenities include the following:

• Seaside Grill Restaurant.  A sit-down restaurant open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Willy’s Place.  If you don’t want to spend an inordinate amount of time seated at Seaside Grill for lunch, you can get pizza and grilled food at Willy’s Place which adjoins the beach bar.

• Beach Bar.  You can have a seat at the beach bar looking out at the ocean while enjoying your drink.

• Barracuda Bar.  A separate juice bar which is across the way from Seaside Grill Restaurant.

• Rooftop viewing.  You can take your drink upstairs to enjoy more expansive views of the beach and ocean.  There were only a couple of loungers and one table with two chairs, so seating up there is limited.  Still a great place for views.  (FYI):  There are now a lot more seating areas set up so check out this space!)

• Beach Pool.  You can find loungers, a few hammocks, and Bali beds–Bali beds by the pool are very expensive–$4,000 pesos for a bed with a bottle of sparkling wine, that’s about $237 USD.
• Lockers, private showers, bathrooms.  Lockers are pretty easy to identify, but bathrooms everywhere at Secrets Tulum are identified by macramé hangings, hard to describe but here’s a pic of what bathroom areas look like…

• Loungers right on the actual beach which are outside of the wooden perimeter of the Beach Club.  Nothing fancy, but there were rows of regular loungers which sit right on the beach.

FYI:  Just a note about the regular beach loungers…don’t count on keeping your oceanfront views with a lounger in the first row if you’ve been lucky enough to get one when you arrive at the Beach Club.  Staff will take later Beach Club arrivals and place their new loungers in front of guests who have already been there for awhile.  I’ve never had this happen to me at any resort I’ve visited–ever.  If I had wanted a second tier lounger I would have taken one since there were some available when I got to the Beach Club. I wanted a full-on ocean view and chose a lounger to reflect that want.  So here’s a tip:  try and get a lounger on the end of the row so it will be easier to move yours if that happens to you.  Such an easy problem for the resort to fix–you’ve got room so put out as many loungers as possible, guests will choose where they want to sit.  Don’t put out only half of your loungers and add the rest later.  Extremely disrespectful of guests.  OK, I’m done with my diatribe.  Seriously, this could be a factor whether I decide to come back here or not.  Guess I wasn’t done with my diatribe…lol.

Here’s some random things you may want to know about Secrets Tulum:

• Smokers, you have a teeny tiny seating area outside of the buffet restaurant entrance/exit area.
• Spa-goers, this spa looked beautiful, I will be posting a separate blog article about the spa since I got a private tour.  The hydrotherapy circuit takes up an entire floor.
• Find the elevator outside of the lobby area and take it to either go to the rooftop or down to the main pool area.  Don’t use the stairs across from the lobby check-in to walk up to the rooftop area–there were no handrails whatsoever which made it potentially very unsafe for older guests or those who have mobility problems.  This elevator was near the Preferred Club Lounge.
• Entertainment, hit or miss in the evenings.  They did have a Silent Disco one evening (I think it was on a Saturday) which kind of seemed fun, I felt awkward participating being a solo traveler, so maybe I will try at another resort some other time.

After reading this review, you may be thinking “what did she find so great that she would even think about returning?”  I believe that keeping an open mind and trying to stay positive is important, especially when traveling.  I’ve said it before, and I will say it again here–NO VACATION IS PERFECT, NO RESORT IS PERFECT.  There will always be some snags, or even some disasters along the way.  That doesn’t mean one can’t enjoy what they can in their experience.  Secrets Tulum Resort and Beach Club has a lot going for it and with some tweaks and additions, it could be a phenomenal destination.  Secrets, if anybody’s listening, here are some suggestions that would push your ratings up, get better reviews, and quickly get more guests coming instead of having them cancel and rebook with another Secrets resort.  And that’s what’s happening…I’ve even had readers contact me and ask for reassurance about their upcoming stay at this resort.  Here are my suggestions; if anyone has any additional ones, please comment below.  If you are new to posting comments to my articles, there may be a slight delay in seeing them since I check each comment to make sure it is not spam before I OK them.

1. More signage with arrows, please.  People aren’t going to return, finish their stay, or even choose to come if they know they cannot easily find your amenities.
2. Food carts need to be added at various places around the resort at different times of the day.  It’s not like Secrets resorts don’t already do this…I saw plenty of food carts at Secrets Moxche during a recent visit and they all were very much appreciated and had lines to prove they were a hit.  A la carte dining options without upgrading are limited, so food carts (re. tacos, crepes, etc.) would be fantastic. Get them up at the Sky pool area please!
3. Bar carts at different places around the resort…successful bar carts have a specific type of drink–I’ve thoroughly enjoyed mojito bar carts where staff personally made mojitos to order, for example.  This might be more challenging at the pools here, though, with the sand.  How about bar carts at rooftop pool areas?
4. You’ve got to add “something special” to your limited buffet…it’s not unusual for 5 star luxury resorts (or even 3-4 star resorts) to offer dishes like paella or offer seafood sections.  Serving large pans of paella at certain pools and at the beach on certain days would also be a hit.
5. Change your beach lounger policy…grrrr. No more placing beach loungers for just arrived guests in front of guests who are already seated.
6. Improve your quality of entertainment; I’ve heard some very nice sax players at other 5 star resorts that played at a main pool venue during the afternoon–how about adding some more live entertainment?  What about a fire show?  Secrets Moxche had a great fire show; how about those performers?

Any other suggestions?  Thanks for making it this far in this resort review!  I am going to do something a bit different at the end here, I am going to post this review without the complete picture gallery at the end.  It takes some time to put the pics together and put them in some semblance of order, and I am not quite through.  So, check back in another week if you are interested in seeing all my resort pics….

The comments in this review are those of the author/reviewer.  This trip was paid for in its entirety by the author; at no time were any monies or services exchanged for this review.

Location:  1 hr. 40 min. from the Cancun airport, only 10 min. away from the new Tulum airport

Telephone: 1-866-467-3273

email:  info.sectu@secretstulum.com