In recent years, there has been a proliferation of eco-lodges across Ecuador, basically environmentally-friendly hotels often set in large, protected areas of forest. In theory, they use the money they get from tourism to help conserve their particular area of forest, and many also work with local communities to improve schools, build paths and improve the quality of life for the locals. However, while there are many bonafide eco-lodges around, there are also plenty of fakes that think they can boost their popularity simply by tacking "eco-" onto their name (one place we visited claimed to be an ecolodge because it had a papaya tree!). Have a look at our guide to Eco-tourism to find out some of the basic principles that lodges should abide by in order to use this title.