Here's my recommendation for the OP. The Canon rebel or similar entry dslr from Nikon. A wide to normal zoom and a telephoto zoom. And yes digital. This is a vacation. S/he will want to post pics on Facebook or his/her blog. You can't do that easily with film and certainly not while on vacation. Then if s/he become an enthusiast s/he can upgrade to whatever makes sense at the time and will have a better idea of what s/he wants. I'm a Canon person cause that's what I started with (film).