It's not very satisfying for a wooden-box lover like me and probably yourself but the Fluke ukuleles are have an awful lot of sound and playability for the dollar. They're actually not cheap, a tenor one will be a bit over your target range, but in my limited experience they sound and play better than the similarly priced laminated-wood ones. Of course you can get all-Koa ukes that will have a much richer, more woody sound than a plastic Fluke but that'll cost you.
I think the key is that Fluke uses a decent quality solid-wood top for sound and then the rest of it is plastic. Very stable with temperature and so forth and very ringing tone. I bought one for my "travel guitar" and it has a good uke sound and nothing could be more portable. The little under-$100 laminated wood ukes I've played sound small and boxy and don't strike me as particularly travel-worthy.
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