20 Island Vacations Where You Won't Need a Passport

For a lot of people, the word vacation is synonymous with jetting off to an island paradise to stick your toes in the sand and sip a drink by the water. That may sound frivolous, but it's not—research has shown that vacations are necessary, benefiting us in just about every way possible: mentally, emotionally, and physically.

One challenge to that dream: No passport. A little over half of Americans hold a valid passport, which means the other half's travel is restricted to the United States itself—you even need a passport to travel to and from Canada and Mexico, these days. There are a lot of reasons for this, from cost (it can run about $500 just to get a family of four set up with passports) and the hassle of filling out the forms, getting the pictures, and waiting about six weeks to ge