May I say that if you are going someplace for the sake of "seeing it", by all means take good binos. (If yer going to photograph it, take a good camera) But if "extended optical capability" is all you need consider a mono. They're lighter, smaller, and of course not as nice. Sometimes I like to carry a mono infrared telescope. Watching the animals around camp is fun and looking at the night sky even with a 3.5 power lens is awesome when it has 35,000x light amplification.
Jim
_________________________
These are my own opinions based on wisdom earned through many wrong decisions. Your mileage may vary.