I have been using the US version of the camera called the Canon S400 ELPH for quite sometime now. After I bought 4 other people in my group bought and none have regretted.
This is not the BEST camera around or the CHEAPEST one around but it is definitely the most SUITABlE one. When travelling and sightseeing what hampers you the most is bulky addons that you need to carry with you. I know it because I have been strutting a Canon SLR Z-75 around for many of my trips. It is great to show to friends how big and powerful your camera is but carrying it is a very big pain. So my advice to you is go for size ALWAYS if you are not into professional stuff.
Finally what matters most is how much you use it to take pleasure from it. On some of my earlier trips I decided to not take the SLR camera as it was too bulky to carry around when it required lot of trekking and other manually intensive activities (like walking !).
Having said that let me say about what this camera does and does not. The S400 is the smallest 4 Mega Pixel digital camera. It has a 3x optical zoom. Note the digital zoom really does not matter so never ever compare or even look at the number mentioned against a camera rating. It is very small in size and easily fits into a shirt pocket. The camera is bulky for its size. I bought a leather case which can be attached to the belt like a cell phone and was able to overcome this limitation.
The still pictures are FANTASTIC and the movies not so great. But I dont do movie shooting with a digi cam. The settings and controls are very easy after you have got used to it but it takes a while to get adjusted to the various settings. The mixed light photographs are not so great especially the outdoor shoots in the late low light evenings. I hear that the same problem afflicts many others as well. The memory card that is used is not compatible with the Sony memory cards from the camcorder so I had to buy a different set.
Been to Las Vegas, Florida and Konkan and have great shoots to show for it. There is an updated version to the S400 which has other enhancements.
Overall an easy choice to make.