Passport from Paradise

Once you land in the Caribbean, it's a fair guess that you won’t be in any big hurry to get home. But when at last you are ready to get back to the grind, it's always nice to know that you can. So if you’ve planned that perfect summertime getaway (and if you haven’t, you should; the deals right now are smokin'), you should be aware that as of June 1, U.S. citizens will need to present proof of citizenship to get back into the country from destinations in the Caribbean (as well as Mexico and Canada). Acceptable documents include the old-fashioned passport, one of the government’s new passport cards, the chip-embedded “enhanced driver’s license" issued by a few state DMVs or, for regular border-crossers, a “Trusted Traveler” card from SENTRI, NEXUS or Global Entry.

The rules are a little different for vacationers under 16 and those traveling by cruise ship, so check out the Customs and Border Protection Department’s Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative page to make sense of it all. And don't delay: Processing time for passport applications is currently about four weeks, according to the State Department.

Passport from Paradise