Depends what she wants to do with it, depends how 'serious' she wants to use it.
Mrs Kiwi went through this twelve months or so ago, and came out at DV.
Most DV recorders have fire-wire ports, so the contents of the tapes can be moved to a computer (Microsoft XP comes with all the stuff you need) and then the tapes can be re-used.
There are plenty of pros and cons, and I even remember some of them.
HDD recorders. Cute, good quality, hopeless for going away with. The contents have to be transfered somewhere, which you can never do on holiday. (with the other two they have removable media)
DVD recorders. Quality often not as good, the recording time isn't great and although you are going to straight to DVD, undoubtly you will copy it to a computer to edit it, and then back to a full size DVD. Nice to have removable media but you have to be careful when lugging the media. Still the media is fairly cheap to run. and cameras are often cheaper too.
DV recorders, The best quality recorders are DV. (although there are all levels of quality) The tapes are fairly cheap and can be reused lots. The tapes are small and robust when travelling. The quality is excellent.
Mrs Young ended up with a panasonic camera which is an excellent camera.
Panasonic PV-GS300 although maybe a bit much for most