Have been doing a lot of hunting around with regarding buying my first proper set of binos/spotting scope but haven't been able to decide which. Like the idea of a scope but am happy to take either depending on ease of use/performance and value.
If you like the idea of a 'scope, why not try to borrow one for a while? I can almost guarantee you won't use it as much as you think you will, but they do have a few advantages. For the same aperture, magnification and quality of optics they're generally a lot lighter and a lot more compact because there's only one set of optics. The focus arrangement is simpler because there's only one light path to focus, and there's no alignment issue. All that means, other things being equal, they'll be cheaper.
But frankly they're a bit of an acquired taste. If you're using both eyes they help each other, and you can see things with binoculars especially in poor light which you might miss with a telescope of the same power. I keep a monocular in the tank bag on the bike purely because space is at a premium. I might have one in my pocket if I go out walking because it's so small and light compared with binoculars. But if I'm going somewhere specifically to look at things, then I take binoculars. I keep binoculars in the car -- out of sight.
When you get to very high magnifications (more than about 20 times) then the slightest misalignment makes binoculars almost unusable. So at higher magnifications it will always be a telescope. You need a tripod or something similar for anything with magnification more than about ten times unless the optics has image stabilization. There are binoculars with active image stabilization that make a hand-held device with 20 times magnification very possible. They're a joy to use but they're very expensive.
My advice for a first pair would be something in the range of 7x40 to 8x50 binoculars, the best ones you can afford if you're planning to keep them for a while. I already have several in that range and a few outside it, but if somebody gave me a blank cheque and told me I had to to go out and buy something optical as a present for myself it would be binoculars, in that range of size and magnification, but top of the range optics. I wouldn't consider a monocular or telescope at all.