Bee Travel
Paradise U.S.
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
You've been hearing about it, and it was supposed to happen Jan. 8. There's been the tiniest of

reprieves, for the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative has been pushed back to begin Jan. 23. What the heck does this mean?

It means you won't need a passport to travel to the Caribbean until slightly later than originally scheduled. Of course most of us don't want to go much of anywhere post-Christmas, the holidays having drained our bank accounts and initiative. We tend to enjoy cold weather and snow before the holiday. It's after that we develop our warm-weather itch. Expect, therefore, that there will still be an inevitable crunch for passports, a deluge born of the somnolent winter traveler who hasn't given a moment's thought to the annual winter vacation.

Some thoughts for those late to this party: Think U.S. I don't mean stay home, and I don't mean continental U.S. I mean, rather, that there are fragments of the U.S. sprinkled about, places you can go and still be, on a technicality, in the U.S.

In the Caribbean, that includes the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rico Commonwealth is three islands - unless you include the Spanish Virgin Islands (as some call Vieques, Culebra, Culebrita, and Palomina), plus Mona, Monito, Desecheo, Caja de Muretos and other isolated islands. Unless you're a naturalist or a camper, though, you and your non-passport I.D. will likely land you on the main island, where San Juan is situated, the most populous, famous and visited. There's lots to Puerto Rico, a very healthy lump of island roughly three times the size of Rhode Island. Beyond San Juan are several major cities of interest, though of special interest to the beach-dweller would be Ponce, Aquadilla and Fajardo.

But back to the facts. The U.S. Virgin Islands are another retreat of three islands, though technically St. Croix falls outside the scientific, geographic archipelago grouping. Each of these islands delivers a different flavor. In this regard, it's like traveling to three completely different places. St. Thomas is best known, and certainly cruise passengers are well acquainted with its alleyways and beaches. St. John is a short hop away, known more for its high-end resorts and, conversely, its campgrounds and natural area. St. Croix delivers that Dutch flavor, residual of its heritage, and is perhaps the most low-key of all three.

There are other bits of America to be found in the Pacific. These include Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Swains Island. Until now, the Northern Mariana Islands has attracted predominantly Japanese tourists. There is a Hyatt on Saipan, one familiar indicator that these islands await American tourists. Swains Island is not so much a tourist attraction as an asterisk in history, an interesting story you can find on the internet. Guam and American Samoa have perhaps the biggest touristic advantage of all the others, with infrastructure and investment in hospitality key to attracting the American vacationer. Needless to say, beaches abound, and the typhoon season is over.

Winter-weary and passport-less? Don't stay home. Go home.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globetrotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, N.Y. 14231-0150.)