There are good choices from each of the five remaining major DSLR brands – Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Pentax, and Sony.

I am sure a Canon owner will be along to suggest a Rebel this-or-that outfit, a Pentax owner to suggest a K200d, etc.

You really can’t go wrong with any of them but I sincerely believe that in the entry-level DSLR game that Nikon has the best overall image quality of the lot, as opposed to digital compacts where Nikon is an also-ran.

I would recommend the D60 with the 18-55 VR II and 55-200 kit lenses. The image quality from the D60 is superb, the two lenses though not the most stout of Nikkors is excellent and both the camera and lenses are compact and light. The flash on the D60 is also good enough [out to about 20-25 feet] that you could likely eschew carrying a shoe-mount flash in order to save weight and bulk. The two-lens kit is about $850 but B&H has currently an instant $150 rebate so you only pay about $700.

Some will say don't buy the D40/D60 because you can't use Nikon's older lenses, you have to use AF-S lenses. This is true but you don't sound to me like you have a stash of older Nikon lenses. Just about every lens Nikon has made for the last five years, and every lens they make from this point on will be AF-S, or D40/D60 compatible.

The other option, and the one I personally would go with would be the D60 kit with just the older version of the 18-55, which B&H is selling currently for about $550. I would then sell or give away the 18-55 kit lens and I would buy the Nikkor 16-85 AF-S VR-II, which runs about $600. It is a excellent lens optically and gives you a very workable one-lens solution, which saves even more bulk and weight.

The 16-85 is equivalent to a 24-130 in 35mm terms, which should be enough for most people. When I travel I find that a wider-angle lens is of more use than is a long telephoto. This may or may not be true for you but IMHO the difference between 16mm and 18mm [24mm and 28 mm in 35mm terms] is more significant than is the difference on the telephoto end of the lens. Sometimes you just can't back up anymore but you can always crop in order to enlarge.

Well, that's my advice. Others will surely disagree or have their own, differing suggestions.