Secrets Papagayo Costa Rica - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

5539 reviews

• 

  Destination Wedding for Niece

  Everything was great...but they could use some work on the app that's supposed to keep you informed of what's going on. Had instances where what we wanted to do just didn't happen...even after asking the activities desk where it would be. Confirming departure time for return airport shuttle with Amstar was frustrating. The concierge NEVER answered any of my requests before the trip so I didn't think of them to get the shuttle info. Turns out the concierge was able to get the time for us.

  Mar 04, 2025
• 

  Highly recommended

  We had an excellent experience at Secrets Papagayo. The rooms were clean and beds are great. Restaurants had many choices and we had fantastic meals at all of them. The pools were clean and lounge chairs are comfortable and in good shape. The staff were helpful and met all of our needs. This was our first time at Secrets Papagayo and we will return

  Mar 03, 2025
• 

  Very nice property with some room for improvement

  We stayed 5 days at this property in February 2025 to celebrate a birthday. - Check-in process and Service The staff is very friendly, warm and courteous. The person that checked us in (Juan) was very nice and helpful and speaks excellent English. It took 20 minutes from the time they gave us the key to the time a shuttle showed-up to take us to the room, so that process has “room” for improvement. The entertainment coordinator was presented as a person that would help us through the stay as “preferred members” but instead all he did was asking us to attend some sort of sales presentation that required credit card and Id. We don’t appreciate this type of sales pressure. - Hyatt Globalist Experience Disappointing experience here. No welcoming gift in the room which we usually get as a Globalist in other properties. Didn’t get any room upgrade (and we booked almost a year ahead). We had access to a preferred lounge which was good mostly for the premium alcohol (and William - a great bartender) but the food there was just ok and had no sea view. It was a birthday stay, as noted in the check in process and the pre-arrival form, but they didn’t do anything for us on that special day. They did offer us a late checkout upon request, so that was appreciated. - The property The grounds are very clean and well maintained. You will see some wonderful tropical creatures like colorful birds and iguanas ! It feels like you are in the middle of a tropical forest. The property is large and hilly. They do offer shuttles which usually pick you up fast, but be aware that walking around can be difficult. If you have mobility issues, this may not be the place for you. The beach is nice and calm - it’s part of a peninsula/bay. It felt more like a lake than the sea. The volcanic sand is very dark. Not an issue for us, but definitely a different vibe from a white sand beach and open sea. Still, very pleasant. The swimming pools are beautiful and well maintained - nice jacuzzi. Good number of chairs available. The rooms were very clean and spacious. Large smart Tv with streaming. Nice balcony. I also appreciated the nespresso coffee machine and the excellent Costa Rican coffee! Good - and not too noisy - air conditioning. Loved the large rain shower. - Food and entertainment Good entertainment variety. We took a dance class and also participated in a painting and champagne tasting event - it was fun. Karaoke was only one day a week and we were leaving before that event - disappointing. Maybe the management could add an extra day of karaoke instead of music DJ? There were a lot of water activities that may appeal to a younger crowd. Would be nice if they also had trivia games (eg music bingo). Food variety is good with several restaurants on the property. Our favorites were Seaside Grill and Hibashi. We found the quality was adequate but not great. They have good seafood but the cooking is a bit bland, lacking spice and flavor. The deserts and coffee were good though. We loved the small coffee shop which had great coffee and yummy deserts. Housekeeping was excellent - Ana did a great job every day. This is an all adults property which was a plus - it was relatively quiet. Overall, this was a fun, enjoyable stay. The property is very nice (4 stars) and could become great (5 stars) if they addressed the issues outlined above.

  Feb 27, 2025
• 

  Disappointed

  This is my personal review, and therefore subjective. We arrived in the early evening so it was dark, and although I had told the company that I had a fall and was somewhat limited in my mobility the transport dropped us off at the top of the hill with an arrow to our room number (see photograph). Our room was accessed via steep and poorly lit stone staircase with no handrails. The room was a disappointment in that it bore little relationship to the photographs. We like some privacy when using the toilet, but as seems to be increasingly popular the accommodation was a single room with the shower and toilet behind the bed with opaque glass doors that did not shut. The first night I got up to use the toilet and shaved the skin from the top of my foot, blood everywhere. While I hung on to the wound my husband cleaned the floor. We are retired medics and carry our own kit so did not need external help. However it is now over two weeks and the wound is not healed. There was one bedside lamp and one chair. According to the concierge the next day our this was our entitlement. Alongside a more easily accessible room I also requested a second bedside lamp and a second chair, which we did get. The bed was very comfortable with lovely cotton sheets. Yes there is transport provided 24 hours, once ensconced in our new room we walked down the hill every day and used transport to get back up. It was efficient and the drivers were happy to help me get out of the van. The publicity states that the fridge is restocked daily, this was not required by us as we don't really drink alcohol (I am diabetic) nor fizzy drinks. We ended up with a fridge stuffed with both yet we had to beg for creamer. They do not supply kettles only coffee makers, which we used to make tea but we had to seek out tea bags. The main area in the complex consists of two small pools, which are stuffed with beds which in turn are saved by 07.30 in the morning. Some remain unused for hours and regardless fo labels stating that belongings will be removed they never were. This was also the party section. Luckily on day two we discovered the Serenity pool in the Spa complex which could be accessed via a short walk along the beach when the tide was out. There are grass terraces here once again accessed by stone steps with no handrails. Of course I fell down on day three and skinned the top of my other foot as well as wrenching my ankle. We adapted. My greatest disappointment was the sea, I knew the sand was volcanic and black, which was not a problem what I was not expecting was the lack of clarity in the water, then there were the jelly fish which we were warned about during our arrival briefing. I am a sea swimmer and had really been looking forward to some good swims across the bay. However the reality was that everyday there was with a red flag flying (rip tides) or purple (jelly fish). Food wise this resort was publicised as a gourmet destination, there was the Market Place where breakfast and lunch was served every day. The breakfasts were wonderful with glorious sun ripened fruit consisting of papaya, pineapple, water melon, sweet pink grapefruit. Heaven. There was a griddle where you could have your eggs cooked fresh. The female griddle chef cooked the best omelettes ever, paper thin like crepes but delicious. There was of course the usual array of bacon etc., which did not interest me. There was also the largest supply of cakes and doughnuts but of course they were catering for the American market. I did have a sneaky cinnamon bun occasionally. What was difficult was that we never knew when it would be open in the evening. The Pan Asian restaurant never had wontons although on the menu, although the Tom Yum soup was delicious, and on a couple of nights NO wasabi!!! The sushi was OK but differed every night regardless of what I ordered, the rest of the menu was iffy. The Italian produced some terrible food, crispy seafood starter that had been cooked several times. The Seaside grill was more consistent but I was disappointed at the lack of seafood on the menu. I had a couple of excellent New York steaks, with roast sweet potato. Their salad starters were delicious, but even here I had to send back my steak that I could have used as shoe leather. The resort itself is beautiful, the staff are delightful and ready to help particularly if you have a few dollars in your hand. The weather was perfect, and there were plenty of excursions available up into the rain forest.

  Feb 27, 2025
• 

  Chill week at Secrets Papagayo

  This was our first trip to Costa Rica, and after enjoying a one-week tour with Caravan seeing many sites, we relaxed a second week at Secrets Papagayo. My wife and I are retired and have been extending our vacations to get the most out of the expense of flying. On our first full day, the main pool lounge chairs were full, but our UVC reps Adriana and Mariam were able to reserve a cabana for us. This was on Superbowl Sunday and it gave us a front row view of the big screen they were setting up. We had to leave before the game because they had reserved the cabanas and other tables and chairs for guests who purchased a buffet dinner package to watch the game. Watching the game was not a priority for us, so we enjoyed fine dining at Portofino. We prefer getting waited on, and switched between Portofino and Himitsu restaurants for dinner all seven nights. The variety on their menus was enough to try something different each night. We had no difficulty getting quickly seated at these restaurants because we arrived early. People waited longer for Portofino if they arrived after the first seating, but Himitsu never had a wait. The beach area was small so we spent every day at the smaller pool next to the Aqua restaurant. We had no problem finding lounge chairs to sit there each day. One day, Francis from the entertainment staff rallied us to participate in bracelet weaving lessons, and we each made custom bracelets with letter beads. We enjoyed the Costa Rica dance entertainment show one night, and watched some small bands play music other nights. While this Secrets did have a large auditorium, it was not being used for entertainment at night. Several nights, we enjoyed after dinner cocktails at the preferred lounge. Gary made excellent drinks for us! We spent daytime meals at the Aqua restaurant (near our pool chairs), and got to know that staff very well, including Ingid who greeted us for table seating. and waited on us many times. We loved the Costa Rican coffee every morning. I want to recognize the excellent service we received from the following people… Ingrid, Carlos, Christopher, and Axel - Aqua breakfast and lunch wait staff David, and Andres – Portofino wait staff Anthony, Jonathan, Adrian and Karla – Himitsu wait staff Gary – Secrets preferred lounge bar Joshua – Aqua bar Benlly - Coco Cafe Mike - shuttle driver, where I learned “Tocayo” is a Spanish word that refers to someone who has the same name as you (me Tocayo!). My wife and I appreciated the entire staff here. Everyone was friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive. I want to recognize our UVC reps, Adriana and Miriam, for answering all of our questions, and making sure our stay was excellent. My wife and I highly recommend this resort. We would come back again.

  Feb 26, 2025