Travel camera

I'll second Frank's recommendation of a GM1 and toss in another option, which is a used Panasonic G3 you can beat up on your trip without feeling bad about every little scratch and ding. The G3 can be had for under $200 because it's considered "obsolete." It's a solid all-rounder with a good built-in viewfinder, decent battery life, and a fully articulated LCD. To go with it, I recommend Panasonic's highly-regarded 14-45 zoom, available used for around $175. I used this combo for travel & landscape work for a year and was always delighted with the results. You can see examples in the "recent work" section of my website. I've printed these images up to 16"x21" and they look great.

It makes sense to put your money into good lenses at this point - maybe add a 45-150 and a 20 - and get a better body in a year or two.

I, too, considered the Sony NEX/Alpha series when I was looking for a travel camera system, as my Canon pro bodies were just too big and heavy and obtrusive for walking all day on the dusty mountain roads of Central Asia. I chose Micro Four Thirds instead because the range of available lenses is both broader and deeper, reviews indicate higher average optical quality, and the lenses are generally much smaller. Also, I had Panasonic compact cameras for years (LX3, LX5 & LX7), and really like Panasonic's customizability and user interface. I liked my G3 and GX1 so much that I decided to upgrade to a G6 and GX7 for all my professional work.

(image reduced to 1200x1600 pixels)