During our tour of Vieques beaches by scooter, this was our first stop. The beaches we went to were all east of Esperanza a few miles. For most of the trip you are on paved roads, but for Secret Beach (also known as Pata Prieta), we had to stray off the paved path---a good thing. The main dirt road wasn't too bad, but then we had to turn of this road on to a smaller dirt road. This one was a little more potholed, had quite a few big rocks on it, and steep at times. I maneuvered around the rocks like Han Solo on his Millennium Falcon in an astroid field. It was an adventure just getting to Secret Beach.
The parking area is at the bottom of a steep stretch of road. The lot is primitive & fairly small. I've been told that you should leave your vehicle unlocked, so that if someone is going to beak into your car, they don't have to break the window----we had a scooter, so that wasn't an issue.
From the parking lot, one walks around a signed gate, and takes a short stroll to the beach. Now given its namesake, I was picturing a totally empty beach, but we saw quite a few groups here. But it wasn't super crowded, and we were definitely able to plant ourselves on a nice patch of sand out of earshot of our neighbors.
The beach really is nice in that it's a small "C-shaped" cove. The sand of the beach is white and soft. The waves are fairly small and break right on the beach. This place is your mental image of a tropical beach paradise. Swimming is nice here with not many rocks/coral to worry about. I noticed on a neighboring cove west that there were more rocks. This is where most of the snorkelers were.
So yeah, I wouldn't say Secret Beach is a total secret, but I'd say it's definitely worth the rough road. A solid 4.5 stars. read more