Secreto Hostel

It was ok I just didn’t feel the vibe they talk about we spent most of our time and money in town getting to know the locals

The overall trip was amazing, with great snorkelling and kayaking trips organised by the hostel for only around 50k COP, snorkelling took us to a sunken plane and kayaking through the mangroves. The rooms were not particularly clean, with my fan being broken and lots of bed bugs attacking my entire body. When asking the cleaner about it she blamed me and said the bites were from mosquitos, this wasn’t the case as I had been using bug spray and only got the bites while sleeping in one specific bed, my girlfriend who slept in my bed the night before and got the same bite marks. Again great hostel amazing location staff were overly great and friendly.

We arrived at this hostel only to find there were 0 directions, signs, roads, guides on hand and we were left to our own devices to find a path through the jungle to the hostel, pushing branches and trees aside whilst also carrying our suitcases. We walked 20mins on a very unclear route, without any idea where we were going due to lack of signal and 0 people around to ask with multiple options of paths and dead ends - we were incredibly lost and hot and tired when we arrived, after travelling an hour on the boat from Cartagena. When we arrived we were immediately given a briefing session without a second to regain our composure. We went to the restaurant to ask for some food at around 12 and we were told we had to wait until 12.30 to order any food. There was also no bottled water at all which was an issue because my friend was sick. At 12.30 we tried to order food however the waiter was really unprofessional and acted more like a fellow party goer and even when informed that my friend was sick and needed food urgently, said that we would need to wait at least 45mins and in line with everyone else. We’ve stayed at a lot of hostels, many many party ones included, but at this hostel the Music was unbearably loud as if there was a nightclub going on at mid day. There is a small beach next to the hostel which would be nice however the water is brown and not something you want to swim in. We decided soon after that we would switch hotels however we discover that there are only boats leaving at 1 time in the day. This means it is very difficult to get off the island. If we were to switch hotels we would have had to walk miles lost through the jungle again. There is also nothing near by and the nice part of the island is on the other side nearer Cartagena. We decided to seek refuge at Bora Bora for food, a seemingly exclusive beach club, however the food was revolting and was seriously expensive ( I ordered stir fry noodles and instead I received penne pasta covered in soy sauce). We ultimately ended up leaving the island within 2 hours of arriving. The best part of our day was the boat ride. All said and done, we would not recommend this hostel to anyone.

I guess there it's a problem in the kitchen, i will unveil a secret to the secreto hostel (maybe that's why is called like this) When you order something and you take the order to the kitchen, the cook CAN READ more then a order a time. Ex. if 3 person ordered the same plate, you can cook those plates all togheter, this will make you 3 times faster. I understand that we are in a far away island but around 6 or 7 bilion of people use this method, i suggest you to use it as well. In this way you don't have to wait THREE hours to eat.

El lugar tiene varias puntos a favor y otros por mejorar. PROS. El personal es fenomenal...super amable...atento...servicial...muy muy agradable. La infraestructura es hermosa...las casa lindísimas...ame los mosaicos de los pisos y la decoración La piscina y el minitobogán son un super parche. CONTRAS. No hay playa. Hay que caminar media hora para llegar a la playa. La isla se quedó sin playa pública. Cierran los accesos con puertas de madera y candados. Lo hacen los dueños de restaurantes pues están ofreciendo tour con playa privada para las personas que llegan en bote a pasar el día desde Cartagena. Nos pasó en las dos playas supuestamente públicas...playa libre y playa cristal...ambas con candado todos los días del viaje. Para acceder a la playa tuvimos que llegar por el borde de un acantilado a través de un camino que nos enseño un lugareño. Pasa salir saltamos a través de los alambres de púas Todos los bordes de la playa están cercados y para pasar te piden consumir en los restaurantes. El mejor lugar para disfrutar en la playa es el resort Gente de Mar...son los únicos que no tiene bloqueado el acceso y reciben a quien quiera entrar. Tienen super claro que TODAS las playas son públicas y lo respetan. En los demás lugares te dicen el discurso que todas las playas son públicas pero es falso, o consumes para tener acceso o llegas nadando por la playa. La comida del hostel es mala y costosa. Sal al pueblo hay gran variedad a mejor precio y de muchísima mejor calidad. Reservamos suite con aire acondicionado pero nunca tuvimos el servicio. Estaba averiado. Omar el señor de mantenimiento hizo lo imposible por solucionar y no lo logro. Estuvimos 4 noches y ninguna con aire. En el día no hay nada para hacer en el hostel. Hay que buscar playa y comida, quedarse fuera todo el día y llegar en la noche a una fiesta que hacen. No tiene muelle. El bote te deja en un hostel vecino y caminas con tu equipaje. Nadie te recibe. En los demás lugares donde el bote dejo personas en el camino salía alguien a esperarte. Te llama por el nombre y te guia. Es una distancia de 15 minutos por terreno destapado y no está señalizado en absoluto. Llegamos después de estar un buen rato perdidos hasta que un lugareño que tuvimos la suerte de encontrar no guío. Lleva repelente, bloqueador, zapatos de agua y buena actitud. Esos son los componentes indispensables para que tú estadía sea agradable.

En general fue bueno, los alimentos son balanceados, tienen buen menu, los cuartos a pesar de faltarle un poco mas de mantenimiento, son comodos, el servicio de los meseros en la piscina y restaurantes es muy bueno.. lo unico a mejorar es la actitud de las dos mujeres q trabajan en recepción, les falta ser mas amables y tener mas actitud de servicio.. en general mi estadia fue buena.. es importante aclarar que el hotel no tiene una buena playa para pasar el día.. caminando 20 min hay buenas playas para pasar el día.

Las habitaciones son espaciosas y muy lindas. El baño muy lindo y limpio. Tiene pileta, gimnasio. La comida es muy rica. El personal muy amable y una energía muy linda. Caminando 30 minutos se llega a Playa Libre, muy hermosa de agua cristalina.