[ChrissyMarie]

Hi,
I love to take wildlife shots and having experience of both the 18-200 and the 70 -300, I put myself in your shoes and had a good think of what I would take on a trip such as this.
The 18 -200 is a lovely lens and very sharp (also quite light) and being so sharp makes most images quite croppable. The versatility is the big benefit.
That said my 70-300 has been in my possession the longest so it is the lens I am most familiar with. The extra reach especially with bird/animal photography is good and although a little softer than the 18-200, I seem to produce much nicer artier type shots. For example, the bokeh is really nice on this lens.
To complement my set up, I bought myself a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 compact camera, which has HD video capability, in the region of 10 megapixels and a macro facility. If you buy it online you can get one for £250 and it is very lightweight and versatile. If I have my bigger lens on, I put this one in my pocket so I can also take some nice scenic wide angle shots together with people and the occasional bug. I am also very impressed with the video for such a small camera and I use it for short bursts to capture the atmosphere of places I visit too. Although the video capabaility is quite resouce hungry, the camera itself has excellent handling capability in a whole spectrum of light situations.

Anyway, my choice ~ would be the 70-300mm with the Panasonic in my pocket.