My husband and I recently returned from our second stay at Secrets Moxche in Playa del Carmen, Mexico—about 45 minutes south of Cancun. Click here for TLDR if you just want the highlights!

Our first trip was in October 2022, about 6 months after the resort had opened. We had booked a room in the Impressions building, but unfortunately, the building was not completed in time. The resort put us in a Preferred room on the Moxche side and gave us a certificate to return to stay for free! Our return in August 2023 was our free return stay. Here is our full review!

ROOMS & GROUNDS👍🏼

We were blown away by the beauty of this resort. The beaches in the area aren’t great, but Moxche made up for it with the variety of pools, including one surrounded by sand simulating the beach feel.

The rooms themselves were beautiful, and each room of the resort has a bathtub on the balcony—one of my favorite features. The attention to detail was obvious, with different settings for the lights (day time, romance, night time settings), buttons by the bed to control the blinds and even toothpaste, sunscreen, a shaving kit, bug spray, etc. in the room.

We really loved the black stone with the wood accents.

FOOD🤷🏼‍♀️

The food was a little hit and miss. There was a decent variety: Italian, Mexican, Seafood, Steak, French, but they almost felt like they were trying TOO hard. They were trying to be pretty fancy, and even classic dishes they’d throw in something wild that messed up the whole thing. The steakhouse was the best in our opinion!

There’s also a 24 hour café that has smoothies, snacks, milkshakes, ice cream, popsicles, and coffee—this was my favorite place!

We also felt that room service was quite limited for a resort that touts a peak culinary experience. We asked if we could order a milkshake or anything from the restaurants and they said no.

SERVICE 👎🏼

When we came in 2022, the resort had only been open a few months, so we knew going in that things wouldn’t be perfect. It takes a little while for resorts to work out all their kinks and start running smoothly. When we returned a year later, we expected this to be worked out. That was not so. Employees seemed completely disinterested in their jobs. We happily tip our servers—but we couldn’t even get a server to approach us at any of the pools! They would maybe make a round once an hour if that, and there were many times we’d get skipped over or ignored. We would go to dinner pretty early to beat the rush, and even then it took 10 minutes to get a drink, and you couldn’t even think of getting a refill because once they took your food order, you’d barely see your server again. Very disappointing from a resort advertising such a luxury experience.

We were also a little frustrated with the housekeeping. There were many days we’d leave the room and turn the light on requesting room service, and when we returned hours later, our room hadn’t been cleaned. Housekeeping doesn’t automatically refill the mini bar, and we’d have to request a refill multiple times before it would be honored.

The rooms also have a “Secret Box” where room service can be delivered without being disturbed. Each time we ordered room service we chose that option and also mentioned in the requests that it be put in the box, and each time they disregarded this request and knocked on our door. Since they don’t alert you of when they’re coming, we weren’t always fully dressed or ready to let someone in the room, hence requesting that it just be placed in our box!

At the end of our stay, we confirmed our departure the night before with our butler who assured us that we could leave our bags in the room in the morning and they’d handle bringing them to the front of the resort where we’d be picked up. Of course when our transfer arrived, no one knew where our bags were. No one had picked them up, and we had to wait for them to go be retrieved.

ACTIVITIES 👍🏼

The activities were a hit for me. I REALLY enjoyed the crafty activities they offered like a Sip & Paint night, candle decorating, and a macrame class. I haven’t seen those types of things offered at other resorts, so they were a nice touch!

I also loved their theme night Roads Through Mexico. They gave us a “passport” as we visited each “region” of Mexico, each featuring their local food and drinks, artists and entertainers. I really enjoyed sampling each region’s specialties, and thought this was a super clever and unique experience.

There is a nightclub on site, a speakeasy called the Gypsy Club, but it wouldn’t open til 10:30 at night and we’re old so we didn’t make it that late any night! Overall though, I wouldn’t call this a super “hopping” resort. It’s definitely more about quiet and relaxation—not a bad thing in my book, but if you’re looking for a lot of upbeat activity, you might be bored.

WATCH OUT:

On our last day, my husband and I hopped in the Main Impressions pool as we had every day, and then commented that the water was warmer than usual and cloudy. We got out, and I showered right away but my husband didn't think much of it. He contracted a HORRIBLE folliculitis (“hot tub rash”) all over his body that lasted over a week even with multiple steroids. He was writhing in pain for a week. I did reach out to the resort about this, but received no reply.

Conclusion

For free, this was a lovely stay, and it was EXTREMELY generous of the resort to give us a free stay. My husband is unfortunately paying for it right now with that rash!! But even rash aside, the lack of service holds me back from really recommending this resort—if I advertise that we had a perfect experience just because our stay was free, you all would lose trust in me. I just can’t justify encouraging you all to pay the going rate ($10,000+ per week!) for this resort.

We’re pretty laid back people, so we still managed to have a great time despite the lack of service, and I realize that a lot of what I mentioned are nitpicks, but if I paid full price, I would expect top notch, nearly flawless service (and clear skin…).

Truthfully, I've stayed at resorts for a third of the price and had much better experiences, so we won’t be returning to Moxche. If the price comes down significantly, I could reconsider my opinion, but for now, buyer beware.

TLDR:

The Good:
- Gorgeous grounds. Variety of pools to make up for lack of beach, beautiful plants and foliage—overall just very well designed!
- Rooms are spacious. Balcony tubs are a favorite of mine!
- Never felt overly crowded because there were so many places to park yourself.
- Entertainment: Really unique experiences! We really enjoyed the Sip & Paint night, macrame class, and the Roads Through Mexico tasting event.

The Bad:
- Beach: they work hard to clear seaweed, but the water is brown & muddy most of the time. You might get a clear day if you're lucky.
- Service & Housekeeping: No service at the pool. At dinner, servers would fly by so fast you'd barely get to ask them anything or get a refill on a drink. We’d leave for hours with our light on indicating we'd like our room cleaned, and would come back and it still wasn't done. Mini-bar refills had to be requested separately and requests weren’t fulfilled.
- Food: There are a variety of restaurants, but everything is trying SO hard. There's not really a casual option. Limited room service menu.

The VERY UGLY:
My husband contracted folliculitis from a pool that was not well maintained!

Honest Reviews: Secrets Impression Moxche