Depends. If you really need 'instant-on' light, good old tungsten lamps are hard to beat. Don't overlook the classic 150W PAR38 flood lamps. Old school, for sure, but they are easy to aim, cheap to buy, not too large, and relamping is fast and generally hassle free. 300W and 500W flood fixtures are common, but unless you buy a decent domestic brand ($$$), you may find their reliability a bit dissapointing. I have some. If I were doing it over, I'd ditch them in favor of PAR38's.
OTOH, if you can tolerate some warm-up time, HID is more efficient by a factor of 4 or more. Compact Fluorescents are interesting, but they do have significant warm-up time, especially at low ambient temps. IMVHO, they're not suited for, as you say, "REAL light"
I recommend trying some dirt-cheap PAR38's. Even if you are after something more efficient in the long run, they are a good way to assess the light levels you are after. For example, If you find it takes 2 - 150W lamps, you could later switch to a 50 or 70W HPS or Metal Halide fixture (HPS is yellow, very efficient, and has the best lifetime - MH is relatively white, nearly as efficient, and not quite as long life)
BTW, you can't possibly be in the middle of nowhere. THAT'S where I live, and you're not my neighboor...
What works for me is a a bunch of small lamps around the property that provide a 'background' level of light. I can walk around between house, garage, outbuildings, driveway, etc. with them on. Many are very small 3-5W CFLs. They cost next to nothing to run on a dusk/dawn cycle. Then, I have a number of incandescent lamps under X10 control. Again, spread around - some in the house, some on outbuildings. One command, and they all come on instantly.
We have a 2 HIDs on the house that run 'til we turn in. They provide enough light in the yard that we can see outside, and sitting in front of windows sans curtains feels 'comfortable' in a way that sitting in front of a dark window isn't...
