As of today, US citizens arriving by air from outside the 50 States, no matter what their point of origin, must have a passport to re-enter the country. (Unless you’re coming from Puerto Rico or the USVI, that is. Loophole!) The same applies to our Mexican and Canadian neighbors hoping to fly through the US. Previously, a driver’s license was considered a sufficient form of ID for short hops to Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. Passport restrictions on land borders, and for those arriving by boat, won’t go into effect until “sometime before June 1, 2009,” so travel to Mexico and Canada won’t be drastically affected, but the Caribbean Islands will be feeling the pinch. American tourists constitute the overwhelming majority of visitors to the Caribbean, our own backyard beach paradise. That’s likely to change, though, now that weekend-trippers drawn by cheap direct flights will have to shell out $97 for a passport if they don’t already have one. Wendy Perrin, Condé Nast Traveler’s smart-travel guru, reports in the Perrin Post that Caribbean resorts are fighting back by offering price breaks, or even reimbursement to the holders of new passports. If even that doesn’t convince you that the time is ripe to finally join the proud 27% of Americans who have one, you can make like the rest of the isolationists and follow MSNBC’s tips for destinations that still don’t require a passport.

– Passports
– US Passport Home (Department of State)
– Passport Canada
– Documents for Mexican Nationals (Consulate of Mexico)
– “New Passport Rules to Go Into Effect (Washington Post)
– “Puerto Rico poised to profit from new passport rules” (Seattle Times)
– “Where to go when you don’t have a passport” (MSNBC)