Secrets Vallarta Bay Puerto Vallarta - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

12219 reviews

• 

  There are better places to stay for lower prices

  Our vacation was disappointing from the start and never improved. Upon arrival at our Preferred Club room, we discovered major construction on the pools nearest the beach. This shut down half of Secrets’ outdoor space, and even inside our closed room we heard constant jackhammering. To make matters worse, loud music was blasted in an attempt to mask the noise. When we raised concerns with the Preferred Club staff, we received no apology, no room change, and no compensation—just “it is what it is.” We booked months in advance, read glowing reviews, and were never told about construction. The hotel had countless chances to inform us—before arrival, at check-in, even when handing us room cards—but said nothing. We felt misled and trapped, since other hotels in our range were fully booked. We tried to make the best of it, but once that bad first impression set in, it was hard to shake. We dined at every restaurant, but most food was bland or poorly prepared (medium rare steaks arrived gray and well-done). The sushi bar was especially disappointing—long waits for supermarket-quality sushi with small portions. The only real standouts were Bordeaux and Castaways, which offered good service and food. Everywhere else, the noise from construction and blaring music was inescapable. The Dreams side was a bit quieter but overcrowded with other frustrated guests. Beach service was attentive, but the beach itself wasn’t enjoyable due to construction access, lack of showers, and only a sandy hose behind a fence to rinse off. The beach was clean with no seaweed, but steep and rocky at the shoreline, so water shoes were a must. The resort does have potential: it’s near the airport, close to downtown Puerto Vallarta, and we enjoyed the Malecon for food and walking. But Secrets shows its age. Despite constant cleaning, wear and tear is obvious, especially in the Preferred Club bar and lounge, which reeked of heavy cleaners masking deeper odors. The Preferred Club area had no dedicated pool—just a small hot tub and semi-private space. Reading reviews afterward, we saw other guests had complained about the same issues weeks before, with management promising to “communicate better.” Clearly, nothing changed. That, more than anything, showed us that neither hotel management nor Hyatt values guest experience. Be cautious about 5-star reviews—every guest we spoke with was equally disappointed. Realistically, no one could enjoy this resort during such disruptive construction, unless they were too intoxicated to notice. We truly wanted to enjoy this trip, but the combination of poor handling of the construction, lackluster food, and the aging property means we will not return.

  Aug 27, 2025
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  Great Experience

  Just returned from a wonderful weeks at Secrets Vallarta. We loved the food, the view, the ambiance, the activities, and best, the people. Special recognition to Jimmy and Veronica with the entertainment staff. And Edson and his serving partner at Oceana who helped create a wonderful birthday experience. Juan at the pool was amazing and Jorge, Miguel, Alejandro also took great care of my mother and I. Many others were wonderful as well, too many to list!

  Aug 27, 2025
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  Vacation.

  Wonderful place. Can’t wait to go back there. Excellent place, amazing food, friendly staff, no complaints about this place.

  Aug 26, 2025
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  Always a Secret Resort

  Always enjoy a Secrets resort. We have stayed at over a dozen different Secrets resorts. The pros : very clean, great service, distance from rooms to restaurants to pool and beach were perfect. Distance into town is ideal. The cons: many restaurants were on the Dreams side so as a person that prefers adults only resorts this was disappointing. I had not realized it was attached to a Dreams as I would have been less likely to book. The night entertainment while we were there was not so good however I did see the week following our stay it was better so may have just been the week we were there.

  Aug 26, 2025
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  Avoid :(

  I stayed at Secrets Vallarta Bay Puerto Vallarta end of June through beginning of August 2025 along with my husband and our 2 adult children to celebrate my husband's 50th birthday. We had two rooms. We used Hyatt Guest of Honor certificates on both rooms, which should have given us Globalist benefits, room upgrades, etc . We were supposedly "upgraded" to the Preferred Club, however, the supposed "upgrade" put my husband and me directly beside the very noisy, unattractive view of the pool construction that we were never informed about before our stay. To say that this noise was incessant is an under statement. In our room, at the other pool and at the beach, there was no escaping the constant construction beeping, jackhammering, etc. So we basically wasted our Guest of Honor certificates. They didn't have a room with two separate beds available in the Preferred Club building for our adult kids, so they put them in the non-preferred building but assured us they would still receive Preferred Club and Guest of Honor benefits, however, they did not. They did not receive the room upgrade nor any other benefits and had to request things several times before they would deliver them to the room. Not to mention that our "upgraded room" was one of the worst in the resort due to the construction. We spoke to the manager, Norma, in person at the resort about our disappointment and she offered to refund 25k points to us and see about returning our Guest of Honor certificates. I would have expected a much more generous offer due to the situation, but it was my husband's 50th birthday and I didn't want to tarnish an already disappointing trip with more negativity, so I just accepted her offer so we didn't have to discuss it in front of my husband on his actual birthday anymore. I was told it could take as much as 7-10 business days for the points to post and to confirm if the Guest of Honor certificates could be returned to our account. This discussion happened on August 3rd in person with Norma at the resort. It is now August 25th, (16th business day), and I have followed up with the resort and with Hyatt about 8 times with no resolution. I delayed writing this review to give both Secrets Vallarta Bay and Hyatt ample time to correct this situation, but they have done nothing more than waste more of my time trying to follow up on this. When we booked a couple months ago, the reviews looked great, so we didn't look at the reviews any more between when we booked and when we arrived. Had we looked again, we would have seen that they began unannounced pool construction in the meantime and many other guests were complaining about the pool construction noise. We should not have to rely on other guests to inform us about ongoing disruptive construction at the resort! Do yourself a favor and look through the recent reviews from the past month or two and note that the hotel has replied to the complaints and said that they are working on communicating the notice about the pool construction to guests at the time of booking, but they have been saying this for weeks or months now and still NOTHING is being done to inform guests about the construction or that the pool will be unavailable during their stay before they book or before they arrive so they can make an informed decision on whether they want to stay at this resort or not! I feel like we paid a premium to stay on this side of the resort (the Secrets adults- only side) as opposed to the Dreams side of the resort to experience the quieter more relaxing vibe, but it was much quieter on the Dreams side of the resort, even with all the kids over there! Then on top of that premium, we used our Guest of Honor certificates in hopes of really making this stay special for my husband's 50th birthday, but that was a complete waste of the certificates as our room "upgrade" was more of a "downgrade". Our adult kids who ended up in the non-preferred club building had a quieter room than we did in our supposed "upgraded" room. We have stayed at many other Secrets and Dreams resorts plus many other luxury resorts and never had this poor of an experience. We also stayed at Fairmont Mayakoba while it was under construction and it was clearly stated before we booked, many times during the booking process, and many reminders before our arrival about the construction, and they did a MUCH better job of hiding the construction...in fact, we barely noticed it at the Fairmont! At Secrets Vallarta Bay, we could not escape the noise anywhere...it was incessant at the other pool, on the beach (this site will not allow me to post videos that show just how bad it was but I will try to post this review on other sites that hopefully allow videos) and even in our room with the door shut, since all of these areas are directly adjacent to the construction. And our "upgraded" balcony view was directly looking into the construction zone. :( This site won't let me include videos of the noise in our room with the doors shut that show just how loud the construction noise was and how they tried to cover up the noise with excessively loud music, but I will try to post reviews elsewhere that might allow the videos. On the other side of our room were the roosters that crow at the crack of dawn like clockwork on the adjacent abandoned property (again,I wish this site would let me post videos of how loud it was in person - I will be trying to find other review sites that will allow the videos)! I can't fault the resort for the roosters next door, but if you are looking for relaxation, this is not the place for you, even when construction is finished. At this point the offer from the hotel is beyond laughable to try to make this right. It was not a great offer to begin with, and now to have wasted so much of my time trying to get them to follow through on their promises has made the situation worse. Regardless of all of the above, most of the food was just okay, nothing was bad. The food and service at the French restaurant was very good! The beach service was good, but the drinks across the entire resort were extremely sweet (and I typically love sweet drinks!). No matter what drinks we tried, we could never finish them and found ourselves either sipping them just to try to stay cool or just asking for ice and water. Housekeeping did a good job except for the thick hairy mold growing on the mirror above the desk that must have been there for months to get that gross - see photo. :( The resort has potential to be a nice place, but I'd recommend looking elsewhere for sure. I will update this review if I get a satisfactory response from the resort or from Hyatt.

  Aug 25, 2025