Secreto Hostel, Islas del Rosario — Hotel in Bolívar

The complimentary coffee was good, and we were able to enjoy some time relaxing. That was about it.

Upon arrival, the staff doesn't know what they are doing and takes forever to do absolutely anything. When shown to our room, there were people fixing the toilet for the first half hour or so. The sink water was a tiny little trickle.

I think the worst part is the staff themselves. It is very much a cult-like staff that knows each other very well and would rather want to party with one another than take care of the guests. On the property, they smoke cigarettes like a chimney while people attempt to enjoy the pool and their food. On the activities, they seem to use the day to blast their own music and party with their friends from the rest of the island. I'm down for partying, but disregarding guests' needs to cater to one's friends seems a bit over the top.

On the snorkeling tour, the mask was terrible and filled with water and fogged. The snorkel itself also took on water in the mouthpiece, making it very dangerous. One of the stops for the tour was a swarm of people scrapping to see Pablo Escobar's crashed airplane, like literally scrapping on each other to the point where someone shoved my wife. When I tried to speak with someone about this, they disregarded my words.

The "floating bar" is a permanent structure built on the reef that is run by their friends that charge astronomical prices for the drinks. The "beach" area and pool area, as others mentioned, are ridiculous, dirty, and small. The furniture, including the hammocks on the patios, is absolutely disgusting. The drinks are poured weak, and the food is served with little flavor and in small portions.

Upon leaving the resort today, they drove around the island on the boat, making multiple stops to try and find a person that they would add to the already overcrowded boat; this took about 20 minutes.. Then, as we finally left the island, the boat driver slammed into the reef with the prop of the boat, stopped the boat to check for damage, then continued on like nothing happened without saying a word to the guests.

I could probably go on, but I think I have...

It has a such a great potential. Just like the island itself. Initially we wanted to spend a week here but very happy that we only booked two nights. Everything that could go wrong went wrong and none of the staff we talked to had any great understanding about it.

The boat from Cartagena to the island arrived around 11 but we couldn’t check in earlier - so why schedule the boat trip so early in the morning? Check out was at 11 but the boat back to Cartagena didn’t leave until 15. Yes, we could get a private boat but the logistics in this just doesn’t make sense to me.

Our room wasn’t ready for us until 1830 due to some vague explaination. This was all right for us because we wanted to stay in that room so if they did it right then it was ok. When we finally got to our room we didn’t have any towels and needed one more blanket. Additionally the doorlock didn’t work. It took them 4 hours and we had to call them repeatedly until somebody could help us. But they only manage to fix the lock and promised that the towels were on their way. Which were all lies because they never showed up again. We didn’t have mosquito net either and got eaten alive during nighttime.

In the morning there was no understanding from the receptionist. We never got any compensation so the customer service is just bad.

The whole area needs some maintaining. It has its glory days but now is a totally different era. The pools were dirty and the sunbeds definitely need to be renewed. The music is played high and low, mixing of different genre from morning till nighttime. Which is great for some but if I’m you only have one guest in the bar you don’t have to play the music at maximum.

The food is expensive and poor in taste. If a lot of people are leaving their food behind you should get the hint and improve your cooking.

Sorry for the long review and I never give a place pure 1 star. But it is important that travelers who spent so much of their precious time and money get a heads up about this place. I would not go back and can’t at all...

We had a private room with no toilet, so we had to use the general bathrooms. These are still very near the bedrooms and kept quite clean. The bed was very comfy and the room was clean. All beds have a very efficient mosquito net.|There's 2 swimming pools, one of them with a fun swing. The bar is very well equipped and the cocktails are amazing! Well done to the staff, honestly. We'd definitely recommend the piñacoladas - best we've ever had! |Breakfast was not included on the bill for us. It is mostly buffet, including muesli, bread (and a toaster), honey, yogurt, milk and lactose free milk (sadly no plant based milk), and usually a couple of different fresh fruits. Coffee and tea available too. There's also scrambled eggs and bread/arepa/french toast coming from the kitchen (changes everyday, make sure you tell the waiter that you want to order one). |The food from the kitchen was very tasty and wholesome. They have veggie and vegan options in the menu but sadly the vegan options get repetitive after a couple of meals as they use bits from each dish to make up a new one. It is all still very tasty. ||TO GET THERE: |We departed from Cartagena. There are several lanchas (boats) leaving Cartagena everyday in the morning, between 8am and 10am. You shouldn't pay more than 80.000pp. You can go later if you hire a private boat; this can get quite expensive, and it's honestly quite dangerous to go in the afternoon as the sea gets very rough). In the port before boarding, everything feels very chaotic and disorganised but I guess it's just how it is. |The way there in the morning is often quite smooth as the sea is calm, HOWEVER, on the way back from the Island to Cartagena, as the boats only depart in the afternoon (at about 1:30pm I believe, even though ours was over 1hour late), the sea gets very aggressive. I was honestly glad to have made it back to shore without a scratch, and everyone was completely soaked (be sure to take plastic bags for your...