From the moment we arrived we were in awe at how the pictures on the website did not do the villa justice! The location was perfect, the layout was spacious and comfortable. It was clean and very well maintained and having the cleaning staff come in each day – and actually cleaned, not just tidy up – was a fabulous touch. We were not messy guests, just tracked in a lot of sand no matter how hard we tried not to! We did not get a chance to meet the owner but Mauricio, the Villa Manager, is a sweetheart.

The security guard in the Palapa was very helpful and understood English enough to have our transportation needs met as we did not rent a vehicle. A roundtrip taxi to Puerto Morales or Playa del Carmen ran about $50 USD on the average - more or less depending on the number of passengers.

We had dinner reservations at Alux (Aloosh) in Playa one evening. It was wonderful and would definitely return again. A ‘must see’ establishment if you have never been there. We also purchased the four-day meal plan in the Palapa. The food and service were superb! Rafael the chef and Russell the waiter took very good care of us!

The only concern throughout the whole experience of planning, booking and arriving for this trip was early on, trying to contact guest_services@playasecreto.com to get some questions answered. Once Mauricio got involved, it was never an issue!

As for Hacienda del Secreto overall – we are already planning to book again next year, if they will have us!