high end P&S (and i mean really high end -- there are three products in this segment and one of them sucks) are nearly as good as an entry level slr in good light. the three products you want to look at are: 1) panasonic lx3 2) canon g10 and 3) nikon p6000. spoiler: the nikon sucks.
in good light, using a tiny tabletop or flexible tripod where possible, the entry-level tripod will actually be a hindrance if you only own one lens (and if you think "hundreds" is a lot for a lens, you will only ever own one lens, maybe 2). real resolution is close enough to not matter unless you regularly make large prints (10x14+). the advantage of bigger sensors is increased SNR, and slightly increased DR (high-end P&S to high-end SLR is about a stop). at base ISO, the decreased SNR is at worst a very minor issue for pixel peepers (regrettably, me), and the DR difference is completely inconsequential if you don't shoot RAW (which i don't recommend for snapshooters).
of course, if you already own some really good lenses for an slr system for some reason, or the "good light" clause doesn't apply to you, you may want to get an SLR, but because you're paying a big size and weight and sometimes cost penalty, probably a zoom range penalty too, you want to think long and hard about that. you definitely don't want to do it because your parents are willing to hand you down a tamron 28-200 or some other equally mediocre consumer zoom from the 80s.
oh, and if you're thinking "P&Ses can't be completely useless in bad light" you're pretty much correct. the newest high-end P&S sensors, meaning the LX3 and G10, are actually _more sensitive per area_ than the highest of high end large sensors. however, their area is so much smaller that the benefits are far outweighed. however, there's a silver lining: the sensors are very good at managing luminance noise, but terrible with chroma. this means that they're beautiful sensors at high ISO in B&W. in particular, the LX3 has a high contrast B&W preset that i really like up to ISO 800.
finally, if you're just snapshooting, they all have little pop-up flashes, and a little flash in a vacation snap isn't going to kill anyone.
eta: keep an eye on the sigma DP2, and consider the panasonic G1 for a hybrid. superzoom compacts are generally ignored unless you have some concrete reason to need poor long telephoto shots in your snaps.
