As it has been already said, it all depends on your budget. With whatever binoculars you will end up, forget to see any details (talking of brightest nebulas and globular clusters), but surely you will see a lot more than the naked eyes.
Personally, I like to use both scope and binoculars, together, or just the binoculars, when deploy my 12" dob is not possible.
For a scope, the aperture (diameter either of the main mirror for a reflector, or front lens for a refractor) size is the most important criteria you should consider, with bigger is better. Dobsonian telescopes are the most cost effective scopes from this point of view. My advice, in case your budget is limited, is start with a binoculars, possibly a 11, or 15x70 (andrews sell them for $129) and in the meanwhile save for a good 2nd hand dobsonian at least with an aperture of 10".
One more thing, using binoculars with a star atlas and, or a software (see links below) is a fantastic and fun way for learning where is what in the night sky.
Triatlas: free atlas to download available in 3 different scales
Stellarium: free software. It is a very easy to use digital planetarium
and many other resources out there.
Hope it may help.