I guess this isn't a "beginner's question" per se, but being a beginner, I'm going to mostly stay in the kiddie pool for now. I'm one of those people who is very reluctant to hand over my camera or anything else in a public place to someone I don't know. On our last overseas trip, I only permitted strangers to take our picture with the K20d when there wasn't anywhere to run and I had decided I could almost certainly catch them anyway.
On top of it, I forgot that most people get confused by a camera with an LCD screen but no image. So, wanting to limit our risk on trips while not missing out on shots of "us," I figure a P&S in the bag is a good idea.
I assume brand loyalty isn't particularly important, save perhaps for favoring models that take SD cards. I also assume that paying for bells and whistles isn't necessary since virtually everything you take with it will be "Us at the <sight>", unless something goes horribly wrong with the primary.
So, do you all have one for those travel moments when you need to ask, "excuse me, could you take our picture?" If so, which one?