Sandals Resorts vs. Secrets Resorts?

View Quoted Comment Secrets is hands down the best resort. The Maroma is one I go to every year. The service is the best. Try and do preferred club if you can. Apple vacations using a travel agent like All about travel 719-547-1185 kelly. Even though she is in Colorado she can help from any where. With her you can make payments with low money down just booking your charter flight. We use her all the time from Idaho. It helps if you have a travel agent in case any problems arise she will be your person to do the problem solving. If you get hurt she will be the person to get you home ect.. thrrrbis no dinner bands required or reservations for dinner required. The world market Buffett is to die for. The beach is private and water is famulous. They offer private round trip transportation to and from airport including.hope this helps anyone looking between the two.

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Secrets is couples only as well. Pretty sure a family resort wouldn't be called Secrets - LOL!

I went to Sandals St. Lucia for my honeymoon (we stayed at Regency La Toc in a Butler Suite) and it was worth every penny. The resort is gorgeous and the food is very good. Service was excellent! Go on the Joe Knows tour. It's so much fun. Have a great time!

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I went to Sandals St. Lucia Regency La Toc for my honeymoon and we loved it. We got the butler suite and felt it was worth every penny.

I’m booked for Sandals Jamaica Ochos Rios. I’m so excited to go. Also going to be in June. Just got married last week but June is cheaper for the whole thing. It even comes with butler service. I’m excited for the food and the island. It’s an experience regardless where you go

View Quoted Comment This is NOT true... at least not how I’m reading it... when I read “families” I’m thinking kids running all over... secrets is a fairly romantic adults only resort chain... I just went in January. While not limited to “couples” that is certainly the vast majority of the people there... and definitely not what I consider a “family” place...

We stayed at Secrets Maroma Beach in Mexico which was AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING.

We went to Secrets Papagayo in Costa Rica last summer- AMAZING. We’ve been to all inclusive resorts in Mexico and one in Punta Cana and Secrets Papagayo was hands down the best. The food, the drinks, the staff, the accommodations- everything was spot on. We’re going on our honeymoon this December and wish there was a Secrets somewhere we haven’t been!

I know this post was from awhile ago, but some people still will google wanting the answer. First of all, Secrets and Sandals are both adults only. We stayed at Sandals for our honeymoon and Secrets for our 1st anniversary. They both have their advantages. That being said, Sandals is definitely worth the extra little bit. We stayed at Sandals Regency La Toc in St. Lucia, it was the best! We stayed at Secrets Capri Rivera Mexico.

Advantages of Sandals:

Transportation provided to/from airport. This saved us 100 dollars compared to our trip to Secrets where we had to book transportation to/from the the airport. You can also visit their other resorts. **Secrets claims that you can but it’s extremely misleading. Unlike Sandals, Secrets has very limited trips to their other resorts, if at all. That was one of the awesome things about Sandals. There were 3 resorts on St. Lucia. And basically we stayed at a cheaper resort (which was still outstanding) over the luxury one and still got to go spend the day at the luxury one and use all their amenities.

Food was much much better at Sandals. I mean.. hands down.

Tipping was not allowed at Sandals. Secrets claims that tipping isn’t allowed, however many people were tipping in order to get better service and stronger drinks. Basically you will be waiting forever for your drinks if you aren’t tipping. They give priority to those tipping. Which is not fair considering it’s supposed to be a no tipping all inclusive resort.

Sandals had no sales jargons. They never bothered us about booking stuff. Every opportunity Secrets got, they were constantly bothering you to book a table at an event, or a cabana or excursion. This wasn’t the case at Sandals. It was much more relaxing because we weren’t being bombarded by sales.

Advantages of Secrets:
lots of activities and shows. We found that Sandals didn’t have as many shows. Secrets had an awesome Beatles Revolution show and Elvis and tons of stuff. Kayak tours and salsa lessons.

The spa was EXCELLENT. The prices for almost anything is negotiable which wasn’t the case for Sandals. We never even booked a spa day at Sandals because it was nearly $400! We only paid about $240 at Secrets and they sent us a voucher as well for a $60 massage!

They have 24 hour room service which was not included at Sandals. This was great! The restaurants were also open longer.

Honestly, which resort is better probably depends on your preferences. We saw a lot of differences and I think we will probably stick to Sandals from now on. But we will go back to a Secrets if it is in a location that doesn’t have a Sandals. We definitely had a bias from having already gone to Sandals and having such a wonderful trip, however if you haven’t been before, than this won’t be the case for you!

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Hi, did you go on this trip? How was it? We are looking at the Secrets in Punta Cana and would like some feedback please.

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We had a great time! I knew ahead of time that the resort was one of the older ones, but it was still very nice and clean. There was plenty to do and the food was decent (we went to the buffet several times, and also the steakhouse and the Italian restaurant). One thing worth noting: Men need long pants for some of the restaurants. I think we got in the Italian restaurant despite that, but we couldn't go in the seafood restaurant. We knew about the pants ahead of time, but H decided to not bring any (and they sell casual pants in the gift shop for $50).

We only went to the attached Now resort for some entertainment events and for the nightclub.

We stayed in the preferred club and I definitely recommend that. The pool and beach area were much less crowded and service was great. We don't usually upgrade, but considered our honeymoon a reason to do so.

I hear Secrets Cap Cana is newer and even nicer (and more expensive too), but I wouldn't change our resort if I could go back.

There were only 2 bad things:

1-The ocean had a lot of seaweed, unless you went at high tide. I told H that I would ruin him for our usual trips to the New Jersey shore with how beautiful the ocean is in the Caribbean. It pretty much looked like the Jersey shore, lol. It was very warm and calm though. We are very much into going to the beach, but spent most days at the pool (bar).

2-Room service was horrible. We had to talk to 3 different people to get room service one night, and it took 2 hours to be delivered (they had said 30-45 minutes delivery). We were also supposed to have a scheduled breakfast in bed one morning, but we gave up after waiting 10 minutes and just went to the buffet.

Neither one ruined our trip, though, and I would still go back. We met an older couple there who had been there 22 times, which I think speaks for itself.