Thanks for the help guys.

I ended up choosing the Nikon D5300 Body Only and purchased separetly second hand for $650 the 17-55mm f/2.8 lens.

I feel that I will not require much zoom and am more so looking for the best combination of width, image quality and low light photography.

I was consdering purchasing the 18-35mm f/1.8 Sigma or the 17-50mm f/2.8 Sigma, however I did not proceed with either purchase because I have read compatability issues with the Sigma lenses and the D5300 (which can be rectified by a firmware update, but the USB dock needs to be purchased in order to so and hence it gets quite expensive).

If I hadn't gotten such a sweet deal on the Nikon 17-55mm I would have probably purchased one of the Sigma lenses above, but considering I got the Nikon for practically half the price of its RRP I feel it was the safer "branded" option and also in terms of build quality it seems to be very strong. I feel I got lucky on this price.

Hopefully I can walk through Europe with that one lens and upgrade later to a zoom lens as required.

I have done some extensive research and also decided to invest in a tripod (apparently tripod is king when it comes to low light photography) although at the moment I am absolutely torn between the Manfrotto BeFree Tripod and the (Benro) Mefoto A1350Q1K Roadtrip Travel although to be honest I am leaning towards the Mefoto.

Both seem like good travel tripods, and also not so cheap to render them unstable for my use, but also not so expensive for my budget ($200-$250 mark).

The only reason I would buy the Manfrotto is because it is sold in my city, whereas the MeFoto I would have to import it and I am weary of something happening to it on the way...eeeekkk

What do you guys think?