Eco Tropical Resorts was developed by Lise Tyrrell in 2002-3 while living in Mexico with her young son. Lise considers herself a citizen of the world because of growing up in different countries, including West Africa. Furthermore, her motto is “one world, one people”.

My travels as an adult and my different experiences led me to some realizations. From touristy Cancun, Mexico to a Costa Rica Eco-lodge in the middle of nowhere. Because of this exposure, both as a child and as an adult, I wanted to do something about preserving our fragile environment. These experiences led to the creation of Eco Tropical Resorts. The main goal of this website is helping to preserve nature and the environment for our children and future generations.

In 2025 I partnered up with Carolien van Santvoord

Carolien is a Dutch national that lives in Mexico. We share a lot of the same world views. Here’s a little about her.

She, like me, has always had a passion for living abroad and exploring new cultures. She lived in Cameroon for 3 years, and in 2002 moved to Mexico. There, she and her husband built and ran an eco-lodge in Mahahual, a small fishing village on Mexico’s Caribbean coast. It was sold in 2023.

During her twenty years as an eco-lodge owner, she witnessed firsthand the growing global awareness of human impact on the environment and the rise of eco-tourism. She was proud to offer a low-impact holiday to guests visiting from all over the world.

The Online Eco Rating Exam was added in 2008 to combat Greenwashing

A measuring tool is needed to rate how a hotel or lodging establishment rates how they interact with the environment. The Online Eco Rating Exam was created to measure this. Myself and like minded people created the Eco Rating. Hotel owners who use the Online Eco Rating show visitors what actions they use to promote sustainability. More hotel owners can prove their best practices by using this inexpensive alternative.

Now our readers can take a stand on preserving the earth’s resources when they travel.

Other things we support and care about at Eco Tropical Resorts

News articles about harmful things being done in the name of ecotourism are appearing. We have been posting about the Maasai Mara in Tanzania on Eco Tropical Resort’s Facebook page. The Maasai Mara are being ousted from their sustainable subsistence grazing lands in the name of Ecotourism. Eco Tropical Resorts is leaning towards just calling what is promoted Sustainable and veering away from the term ecotourism because of this. We use Sustainable to mean “using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged”. That is what we are working for.

The original focus of Eco Tropical Resorts was hotels in the Tropics. The directory is slowly expanding to include the rest of the planet, as well as tour companies. Volunteer tourism is another area that is becoming popular. We have decided to include that as well. Eco Tropical Resorts hopes readers will come back as we add more countries and expand.

Wild Futures is one of the sustainable causes we support. Wild Futures support primate conservation on an international level. These causes need our support to make life better! Our Directory lists all Non Profits and NGO’s for free.

Monkey World is one of the largest primate and monkey sanctuaries in Europe. Since 1987 Monkey World has assisted governments worldwide to stop the smuggling of primates.

The Orangutan Project is another cause that we/I support and donate to. These are our cousins and we must protect them and their diminishing habitat.

Lise lives in Catalina (Tucson), AZ in the US and can be reached at 916-838-1525. Lise’s yard was recently visited by a Desert Tortoise, see image below. Endangered in California and Nevada, but not in Arizona.