We did not set out to compare two Secrets resorts. Our first stay, at Secrets Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic in July 2024, came at the end of a longer birthday trip. We had already spent three nights at neighbouring Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana, then moved to Secrets for two. When we checked out, my main regret was that we had given Secrets only two nights.
Seventeen months later, an appealing miles redemption helped put Aruba on our itinerary. Secrets Baby Beach had opened earlier in 2025, and the memory of Cap Cana made another Secrets property seem like an easy choice. We booked three nights in December 2025. Baby Beach was lovely. The overall resort experience did not come close to recreating what we had enjoyed in the Dominican Republic.
Why Cap Cana set the expectation
The highlight of Secrets Cap Cana was the accommodation. Our suite felt enormous, with a distinctive wood-ceilinged bedroom and an expansive outdoor space. There was even a huge bathtub on the balcony, with the sea and palms beyond it. It was the sort of room that made leaving it feel like a poor use of the booking.
We loved the resort's beach setup too. It was easy to find somewhere to sit, take in the palms and spend a little time doing very little. That combination - an unusually memorable room and a beach where I actually wanted to linger - explains why two nights felt insufficient. A third would have been welcome.
The stay cost us 50,000 World of Hyatt points for two nights, an average of 25,000 points per night in July 2024. I was also a Globalist at the time, although the status itself contributed surprisingly little at an all-inclusive. The room and the setting, rather than an elite benefit, were what made those points worthwhile for us.
Aruba had the beautiful beach, but not the same feeling
Aruba was a different sort of decision. We found a United miles redemption on Copa Airlines from Vancouver to Aruba costing 77,000 miles for two travellers, and the new Secrets Baby Beach gave us a reason to build a stop there. We stayed December 20-23, 2025, using 105,000 Hyatt points for three nights - an average of 35,000 per night for our actual booking.
Our room at Baby Beach was bright and modern, and the resort offered attractive views from its pool area. But when I think about the Aruba stay, I don't remember an equivalent to that Cap Cana suite or the urge to extend my time at the resort.
What I do remember vividly is Baby Beach itself. It was beautiful to walk along and explore. The hotel offered a golf cart to reach the beach; we simply walked. That distinction matters: my fondest memory was of the beach, not necessarily of the all-inclusive experience around it.
Being on the island's southeastern end also shaped the logistics. It was a considerable trip from the airport, and private transportation was expensive. Three nights felt like a reasonable length for that effort. Aruba as a whole left less of an impression on us than I had expected, although that's our own travel preference, not a verdict on what another visitor might enjoy.
Dining: our three-resort ranking
We are vegetarian, so an all-inclusive's food matters to us. At Baby Beach, my complaint was not that everything was terrible. It was that everything was merely fine. Meal after meal failed to feel distinctive, and none gave us a compelling reason to choose that resort again. Compared with the experience we remembered from Cap Cana, it felt like a pale imitation.
Our dining ranking across the three resorts was straightforward: Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana first, Secrets Cap Cana second, and Secrets Baby Beach third. Secrets Cap Cana's dining was clearly better than Baby Beach's for us, including as vegetarian travellers. Zilara still ranked highest, with food and cocktails we particularly enjoyed during the three nights immediately before Secrets. Those were separate hotels, and I'm not attributing Zilara's restaurants or bars to Secrets.
This is our subjective ranking from three separate stays, not a controlled restaurant test or a claim about current menus. What matters is that the food at Secrets Baby Beach was the clearest disappointment of the Aruba resort experience.
The award bookings, side by side
| Stay | Dates | Nights | Total points | Per night |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Secrets Cap Cana | July 18-20, 2024 | 2 | 50,000 Hyatt points | 25,000 |
| Secrets Baby Beach Aruba | December 20-23, 2025 | 3 | 105,000 Hyatt points | 35,000 |
Those are the points we actually redeemed, not today's Hyatt award rates or a prediction of future availability. The stays were in different countries and different years, and the Aruba resort had only opened earlier in 2025. A higher points-per-night figure does not, by itself, establish which hotel is objectively better value. The question for me is what memory the redemption bought.
Cap Cana gave us a suite and setting I still think about. At Baby Beach, the best memory was the public beach nearby. That is a meaningful difference when the purpose of the stay is to enjoy the resort itself.
Which Secrets would I choose again?
Between these particular two stays, Secrets Cap Cana wins comfortably. It felt like a place I wanted to stay longer. At Baby Beach, I was glad we visited the beach, but the resort did not persuade me to repeat the experience. If the beautiful beach and a quieter southern-Aruba setting are your priorities, you may reach a different conclusion; our expectations were tied to the much stronger memory of Cap Cana.
Would I rush back to Cap Cana, then? Probably not. These trips reinforced something I already suspected: we're not naturally all-inclusive-resort travellers. We enjoy them more when they're part of a varied journey rather than the whole trip. I would recommend the right Cap Cana stay to someone who wants that kind of escape, and I'd happily take the larger room and beach time again on points. But I'd still want another destination or city in the itinerary.
The larger lesson is not that one entire resort brand is better or worse. It's that the same name on two hotels can hide very different holidays. I would choose the actual suite, beach access, food experience and setting over brand familiarity every time.