#1, you can buy rechargeable AA's, the charger isn't all that inconvenient, I must say I think it doesn't take any more room up storing than my camera battery recharters (actually, I like it better than my camera ones, because it plus right into the wall, I hate those tangled mess of cords!). I do also know, I've heard that some camera also offer a feature that when you plug it into the computer the battery will charge off your computer.
#2, I have a Coolpix S550, hate it! The first year, I loved it, it was great and took some pretty decent photo's, although I found the flash it uses to be on the harsh side, and the shutter speed is CRUD! However, after that first year I started to notice the degeneration of the photo quality. It no longer takes "clean" photo's, they are all de-pixelated grainy, it just gets worse as time goes on, and more of the photo's it takes are out of focus compared with before. The video mode is going dead, there is a dancing white pixel in all my video's, and again the grainy de-pixelation gets worse as time goes on.
By contrast, we also have an Olympus D-380, 2MP. We bought it way back when digital camera were first becoming the big thing to have, and I still to this day LOVE IT! Sadly the outdated card doesn't hold as many photo's at a time that it use to, and you can't get replacements, the one downside to their brand, they've always produced their cameras to run off their own system which is so stupid, but dang I love this cam! I'd have to say, as long as I can get one with a form of memory save that is more convenient, I'd rather go Olympus over Nikon if I had to buy a new "pocket cam" again. Although, the new Nikon with interchangeable lenses is VERY tempting!
Oh, I forgot the topic at hand, sorry! Both my digital's S550 and D80 have their own rechargeable battery, for travel I could see the inconvenience of the battery chargers, again those dang cords! For now I'd suggest for you to find the regular batteries that are rechargeable and get the small plug in recharger that fits 2-4 batteries, they're very easy to use.