Room
Décor
Service
Value
Newly renovated by Secrets
The resort was purchased by AM Resorts and converted to a Secrets Adult Only resort by the same name in December 2012. We visited in April 2013
Room: We were in room 1226, ocean view in the back corner, but did still have a nice view over the grounds and a little bit of the ocean. The deck had two wooden chairs and a table and was a good size with glass see through railings, we were on a corner so it felt very open. Because it was an end room we were right next to a bunch of trees though were very loud mockingbirds would hang out, so bring ear plugs or they'll be waking you up at dawn and possibly keeping you up at night. Room was large with a couch and dining table with two comfy table-side chairs. It was clean, furniture in relatively good shape, white cushions on one of the table-side chairs had a couple stains on it but not surprised since they are white. Nice rain shower in the ceiling. For us there seemed o be plenty of storage space, but it's just located in various places rather than just one wardrobe or dresser. The bar was stocked with beer, soda, juice and water. There was a coffee maker, ice bucket and glasses.
Food: Generally pretty good with some issues with consistency at times. Menu did get a little old, particularly at lunch after being there a whole week. Grouper was fantastic and my favorite dish of the week, my husband's was the French Toast. Favorite restaurant was Windows for experience with both food and service. Coco cafe, no gluten free options, but my hubby liked his sandwich and it looked like they had plenty of tasty sweet treats. Coffee is a good Costa Rica brand called Café Britt, but the barista still has some skills to learn about coffee making, the frappachino was far from starbucks quality, but had super thick whipped cream filling the top half of the very small 6oz cups.
Drinks: Beer on tap is Dos Equis. Their house wine wasn't so great and only two options, a Mexican white table wine and a red by the same brand that was a blend of Tempranillo and Grenache. These were barely passable and only when drank with food. The wine list looked ok, but very over priced as an American Chardonnay (Hess) that usually ran about $10 in the US was $55 here. They actually didn't have a lot of the bottles on the list in stock as we had 3 of our choices rejected. The staff in Bordeax didn't have a clue about the wines either as when we asked for a recommendation to go with the Chateaubriand and the duck he recommended an Argentinean Chardonnay. I don't personally know anyone who would pay a lot of money for wine and want to pair their beef with a chardonnay. Best bet is to go with cocktails. Several creative options there even for me who doesn't know what to have and they list a drink of the day in the Sundial too. Try a tamarind daiquiri.
Entertainment: During Saturday dinner a guitarist played on the beach with both an electric and acoustic guitar for various songs, lots of Santana, Eagles, Beatles, Metallica and other well known songs. It was very entertaining and romantic. Sky bar was supposed to have Karaoke tonight, but when we showed up it was energetic club music. Most of the folks who looked like they were there for Karaoke eventually left as no one wanted to change the current vibe by being the first one to sing. Staff could have again done a better job of encouraging guests to participate in the theme of the night as posted rather than derailing it, I bet you can guess who was running it... The bartender was working hard taking care of the numerous rounds of shots ordered by a couple of the groups up there, and I didn't really see him get tips from them much either. He's clearly a hard worker, and his drinks were good too. We also attended Country night up there and it was fun and people danced too. Didn't attend any of the entertainment at Sabor. Movie night occurred outside in Coco Plaza by the coffee shop twice a week.
Pools: Front pool generally peaceful with a lazy river. The back pool was quieter the morning, which lasted until 11:30 when the 80's heavy metal music would start playing. This was where the party crowd mostly hung out. Pretty easy to get a lounger either by the pool or on the beach throughout the trip. There are many "Pool float hogs" who don't seem to understand the concept that if everyone freely shares the floats there wouldn't be a scarcity of them and that when they put them aside either at their chairs or on their swim-out decks it creates a scarcity mentality around the resort, please don't be one of these people.
Activities: I had previously heard that activities are not well attended, but now I understand that that might be in large part due to the fact that Luis, one of the activities guys who runs many of them is very good at trying to avoid working. Several times throughout the week when there was no one where one of the activities were scheduled to be at the time on the schedule in the Sundial, we went to the front desk and they were usually surprised to hear that, made some calls and then Luis would finally show up. It was very apparent that he doesn't take his job seriously, luckily that isn't true for most of the staff at Aura. On our last day we managed to find people to play beach volleyball on our own and luckily we had brought our own ball as the resort ball was no where to be seen that day on the court. One of our favorite was an activity to go bicycling. No one else showed so we had our own free guided bike tour to El Cedral, the town in the middle of the southern part of the island, with Ivan. The bikes were in good condition, but were only single speed mountain bikes without shocks and didn't have any water bottle holders, so bring a pack you can take water in. They provided helmets and orange safety vests. Biking felt very safe, but I am used to riding on the road. The trip took about 25-30 minutes one way and we spent some time taking photos around El Cedral. Ivan was friendly and we enjoyed riding with him. We also enjoyed the yoga classes, they had an experienced instructor from California there for the week we were there, Yoga Elaine, and she was fantastic.
Snorkeling or diving is a must, while out front of the resort is convenient, it had less to see than one of the boat trips and the waves often churned up the sand so visibility was poor. Do it on a calm day.
Touring the island by car rental was a good alternative to booking a tour for us that wouldn't cover all we wanted to see. The onsite rental company is Fiesta and they were helpful, friendly, and trustworthy. We got the comprehensive insurance so that we wouldn't have to deal with any hassles though.
A note about the resort coupons and the "Time Share/Vacation Club" sales people. First of all we didn't realize that our package booked through Cheap Caribbean even came with them although when booking this trip I did see those offers at certain websites for $400 in resort coupons. They are broken up into small usable amounts (max $40 off a massage at one time, but three of those, max $10 off wine at a time, and 4 of those). It's clear they help sell services that you might not buy anyway since the prices are nearing ridiculous. Turns out the lady who provides them to you is with VIP services, if you miss her on check in she leaves you a note in your hotel door telling you to come down and pick them up, so we did. The VIP services is their Vacation Club Promoter. She tries to get you to agree to sit down with one of their representatives in order to get other free stuff while she's giving you the coupons. She's a pretty good sales person too, knows how to find angles around any barriers or reasons you say your not interested. For some people this could be a good deal to sit through this in exchange for car rental, snorkel trips, or other tour discounts, but we despise sales calls and would rather pay cash value.
Sunsets were generally fabulous, and you can't go wrong watching the from the beach or one of the beach-side restaurants. The view of the pier and water with the sunset makes for even better photographs. Weather can be cloudy, windy and rainy at times, so bring a light jacket/sweater/shawl and an umbrella.
Overall, despite some of the fine tuning the resort needs, we had a great time at Secrets Aura! If you would like to read an even longer more detailed report about my trip including more info about restaurants/food, island tour and snorkeling, you can read that here in a day by day format: http://www.fodors.com/community/mexico-central-america/secrets-aura-cozumel.cfm
