I have two. My first is an Opticron Gallery Scope, 8x20, and the second is a Zeiss 6x18. The Opticon makes the Zeiss look like a toy, because it's more solidly built, of metal, and has a screw focussing action and lens caps. The Zeiss is plastic and the tubes just slide past each other with no screw, and no lens caps, just a pouch. However, the Zeiss is better optically, gives a brighter image, and being much lighter is easier to carry. It's also a lot more expensive. The Zeiss is the one I'd recommend.

Both are close-focussing, meaning they can focus down to a foot away. For me that's one of the major benefits over binoculars. For example, you can use them to inspect insects or flowers. The "Gallery" scope is so-called because it is intended for looking at museum exhibits. The relatively low magnification is usually enough, and helps with stability, and is a worthy trade-off to get the brighter image with lighter weight.

There other benefit over binoculars is their light weight and small size. The Zeiss weighs about 100g or 3oz. That makes it practical to carry everywhere. I also have some binoculars and a DSLR camera, and it isn't practical for me to carry the DSLR (and lenses!) and the bins. In practice the binoculars get left behind. Nowadays they don't even get packed in my suitcase when going on holiday. (They are image-stablised, which makes them great to use, but adds to the weight.)

That said, although I like to keep the Zeiss within reach, in practice it's not very often I actually use them day to day.