My husband and I recently returned from a 8 day-7 night stay at Secrets Excellence in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. This is our second time at an all-inclusive and based on our experience here, we will probably avoid all-inclusives in the future.

Secrets has a lot going for it--good service, a beautiful beach, great pool and a lot of free activities in their honeymoon package that were quality--horseback riding, boogie boarding, bike rides, etc. On the other hand, the rooms were average and the food was consistently below average to downright poor across the board. Overall, it was just too touristy for my tastes. I say this knowing that all-inclusives are geared toward the tourist; however, I have been to one other all-inclusive (Iberostar in Mexico) that struck a better balance between tourism and pure relaxation, if that makes sense. We didn't go to the DR for our honeymoon to soak up local culture--we would have gone to Santo Domingo if we were looking for that. We wanted relaxation, good /decent food and ambiance and Secrets just didn't deliver in all three areas.

Since we were on our honeymoon, we remained in a romantic mood throughout the trip. However, the hotel environment did not contribute much to this romantic mood. From the outside, the rooms looked like an upscale, pastel Holiday Inn rather than a luxury resort. Our shower was very small with no place to hold soap (as compared to the double headed large shower we had in Mexico at Iberostar). We did have a whirlpool tub that was very nice but the bedroom decor was standard. Many of the rooms are pool side so at night you could hear drunk or loud people in the pool after hours (pool closes at 6 but not everyone follows the rules) or early in the morning.

And the food was really bad. Lacking in flavor, poor quality (e.g., stale corn chips), overcooked (lobster that tastes like, and with the consistency of, chicken), the list goes on. The food is the #1 reason we won't go back.

I am sure there are a lot of people out there who may disagree with my assessment of Secrets. But I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for all three: great food, great accomodations, and romantic atmosphere.

I recently returned from five days at Secrets Punta Cana. We had a TOTALLY relaxing time! We went to the beach every day and were amazed at how quiet it was. I agree that not all the food was good, but a couple of the restaurants were excellent. The continental restaurant off the lobby --Quisqueya-- was outstanding in both service and food. The seafood restaurant was also good. I don't eat lobster, but I have a friend who is VERY pickey and they had lobster every day for lunch at the seafood restaurant and loved it! We knew not to get a room by the pool because of the possible noise factor. You were there three days longer than we were, so maybe you had more opportunity for some bad experiences.

Like I said in my post, many people will not agree with my assessment of Secrets. A great majority of the rooms are adjacent to the pool and to upgrade to get a room that was not adjacent or close to the pool would have cost an arm and a leg--not worth it for the average rooms they had. I don't think I should have to pay extra for peace and quiet in a resort that is geared toward honeymoons. As for the food, it was horrible. Your friend is definitely not picky if she liked the lobster. We met some people from Jersey who took trips to Maine for lobster and they declared the lobster (and most of the seafood) inedible. I thought it was edible--it just tasted like chicken. I am not an extremely picky person and have given my feedback on the caribbean island, europe, and canadian travel boards. This place just wasn't up to snuff, in my opinion. However, I am not surprised that some people loved the place. Differences in opinion are what make the world more interesting.

I'm going with my boyfriend to Secrets in September. We have a garden suite. Does anyone know anything about these rooms? Do they have just burgers and fries there because my boyfriend is a very picky eater?

They have seven restaurants and offer a wide range of foods. The bars around the pool don't offer much more than fried things--chicken nuggets, empanadas, onion rings, etc. The regular restaurants offer everything from burgers to chateaubriand. The best restaurant there is called Quisqueya and is located right off the lobby. I did not care for the meat at the Texas restaurant. It was WAY overdone. The seafood I had was all good and EVERYTHING at Quisqueya was WONDERFUL!

My experiences at Secrets were similar to those of 'Allabouttravel'. I thought the food was OK as long as you didn't look too closely or ask too many questions about it. Definitely not close to the quality of cooking you get in many other places in the caribbean. But then you should have an idea of what you are getting just from the reasonable cost of the resort. IMO, a good value for the dollar, but not a five star facility.

Schultz

We also had a very pleasant experience at Secrets - we are in our mid-40's and have stayed at MULTIPLE all inclusive resorts including Sandals, Barcelo's and Iberostar's. We found the food quality tob e excellent - maybe it depends on when you went - we were there in March and the food is definitely not something I would complain about. You are correct- the buildings themselves do not look like a luxury resort - but this is the DR, not Four Season's Nevis.

Thanks for the input about the food. I myself am not very picky at all. I stayed at an all-inclusive hotel in cancun a few years back that basically served the same buffet every night and it really didn't bother me. I was just worried that my boyfriend would b*tch & moan but it sounds like they have a good variety. I've heard stories on other message boards about people getting thier shoes stolen there. Is this true? I wanted to bring my video camera are the safes big enough to hold it when I'm not using it? Good idea or bad?

I don't know who in the world would steal the shoes. The only ones in your room are the housekeepers. While on the beach you will NOT be bothered by vendors. They are not allowed and there is security at each end of Secret's beach. The vendors are invited to the resort three nights a week and you can buy things then.
The safe should be big enough for your camera, but since I haven't seen how big the camera is, it's hard to say. It's a nice sized safe--we kept two small purses, two cameras and various things in ours and there was plenty of room for more.
Have a wondderful time!

Thanks for the info about the safe. I swear I read about stolen shoes although I don't remember if they said they were stolen from the room or the beach. I thought it sounded strange too.