Are there any digital camera experts out there?

I've generally mostly only used point and shoot cameras the last several years. I've always gone with Canon cameras. I had a Canon Powershot S330 and now have a SD 790.

Point and shoots are nice for parties and bringing around with ease, but I'd like an SLR for vacations and trips and stuff. Having it be somewhat easy to bring around though is still a priority, cause I know I'll never use it if its too difficult to bring around.

I'm unsure on my budget. I'd imagine I was expecting around $600-700, but some friends have ones that I thought would be in that range and I end up being pretty surprised to hear they are actually around $1800.

In theory I'd say I'm willing to spend $600-800, and would have to be a pretty big reason to go above $1k or something.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks for the help!

(ps: sorry if this is a huge vague general question)