I think it'll come down to that old adage - "it depends". I took my old Canon 6Dii and 24-70 f4 lens on our honeymoon which I'm sure my wife was thrilled about! But we were travelling to once in a lifetime locations so she knew what she was getting herself into 

The aforementioned lens is very similar in size and weight to the 16-55 and I honestly didn't have any issues taking it out shooting - including around crowded markets.

That said, if we were going on such a holiday again, I do think I'd likely take the 15-45 along with a prime, such as the 27 f2.8 or 35 f2. I wouldn't have any reservations about that as this was one of the reasons I moved to (and stuck with) Fujifilm, in that, their smaller budget gear is minimally compromised in terms of IQ (IMO) - I cannot say the same about the Canon DSLR system.