Secrets – Mkingdon's Blog

Regardless of location there is always something very special about the first day of a holiday. It’s the promise of the adventure ahead, the hopefully long break from normality and the fact that all the clothes you brought with you still fit, which may not be the case at the end of the trip.

Having said that, waking up at 3am is never a welcome thing but after a wee, and noticing that the room had some hidden magic, where when your feet hit the floor out of bed, some soft lighting comes on in the bathroom I did manage to get back off again until 6. We watched the sunrise over the ocean from our balcony and Louise finished her unpacking.

We were ready and out by 7.30 and headed for breakfast. Whilst the Dominican Republic would not compete with Mexico for wildlife, we did spot this fella on the way.

Breakfast was just a coffee and a pastry from the coffee shop, both still full from the usual 10,000 calorie travel day yeterday.

We headed to the beach and set up camp before having a wander on the surreally beautiful shoreline. This was easily the most incredible beach we had ever seen.

After that exhausting few minutes of walking we returned to our sunbeds for a well deserved rest. We called my Mum back home and then had a wander up to the pool just in time for the bar to open and our first cocktail of the holiday at 10am. I had a Miami Vice and Louise had a Paloma. I couldn’t tell you what was in either but they were incredibly sweet and lovely.

After more beach, we set off in search of lunch around midday. We opted for The Seaside Grill as it was closest.

I started with the salad….

Louise started with Nachos and wet knockers (wet swimsuit!!)….

We both had the burger, which I had already started by the time I remembered the photo….

Breaking every rule in the book, we went for a swim in the sea immediately after lunch and then we spent an hour up by one of the pools. Louise realised she had failed massively by forgetting to bring any After Sun. We had words as all she had to do was iron and pack everything for both of us and I knew buying some here would break the bank.

$21 lighter and with a massive sulk on we went back to the room around 5pm. I showered and Louise had a bath. We were delighted to see that this Secrets also had the in room TV channel that we had loved in Mexico. It’s hard to explain what it is other than a rolling film of “zen” type images and noises. You had to be there.

We were both absolutely knackered so we decided we’d have a nap for an hour before dinner. I briefly woke at 10.40pm, had a wee and went back to sleep until 5am! I did say were were tired.

So no dinner tonight and I have submitted my clam for a refund of course.

I apologise for this truncated first day but our need for sleep was too great. It had been a very busy and stressful time at work (you know I’ve moaned about it constantly) but tomorrow we reap the benefits.

Till the next time…….

We are back from Mexico! Whilst I did say prior to departure that there wouldn’t be a full blown trip report (and that is very much still the case) I will share some photos and information on what we did.

Most days we don’t do a lot so this will be mostly food related but hey what’s new.

Before we left I was unaware of Tajin. This changed early in the trip with my first strawberry margarita. It then became a consistent theme of our trip hence the title.

If you don’t want to plough through the detail of what is to come and just want a TL/DR summary of the trip, we loved it.

The resort, Secrets Akumal, was incredible. We would recommend and return for sure.

Anyway, using minimal notes and a few photos here we go.

Day one July 2nd

It was a painless journey to the airport and check in was a breeze.

Security was very quiet and we headed to the
lounge at 8.15 courtesy of our TUI Premium tickets . I had two plates of brekkie.

Adhering to airport traditions at least for holidays where I don’t need to drive at the other end we had some free alcohol. Our first attempt was very crap draft alcohol. Beer for me and Prosecco for Louise. They were undrinkable so I went back and got two bottles of Carlsberg instead.

Louise had forgotten her reading glasses so we went to Boots to get some temporary ones and general flight stuff.

Gate A6 at 10.30. One of the last to board.
Fizz was served as we sat down. We were of course 20 minutes late taking off.

I was so tired. I had felt stressed and unready in the lead up to the trip so this tiredness was probably a work hangover. My body gave in and all I could do was sleep.

Louise watched films.
The food was Ok but I didn’t eat much.

When I woke up I watched the Better Man film and enjoyed it.

It’s a bit blurry and it was probably my tired stressed state of mind but that cloud looked like a dog.

The flight was 9.5 hours. Upon landing there was no gate available so we had a 20 minute wait on the tarmac.

Immigration not too busy. Baggage claim slow and chaotic. Then we had to go through the weird x-ray customs thing as I believe they were checking for vapes and e-cigarettes which we were told were not allowed to be taken into Mexico.

It was hard to find our taxi rep but we got there eventually but needed one taxi to take us to another terminal to get our proper transfer taxi.

The transfer was just over an hour and felt like a high speed car chase. I was messaging folks back home from the back seat and felt car sick so had to stop and concentrate on not ruining the taxi.

Check in was a dream. We were seated with a concierge who sorted everything. There was lovely champers whilst we did all the paperwork.