significantly less crowded airspace than that of the UK
Thats rubbish for a start, as anyone who has flown out of LA knows all too well. Can't speak for Florida, but I imagine, judging by the amout of Class B airspace there that it is also very busy.
I learned in the US and came back to fly from a "busy" airport. Busy, my arse, they make you orbit when a 737 is on a 10 mile final, where as in the states you'll be "cleared to land, boeing 767 on a 2 mile final, you'll preceed him through the intersection". The differences are not so great really, probably took me a 2 hr checkout before they were happy to let me loose in their club planes.
Ok, got that out of the way
. Depends what you want to do with your flying. I did a JAA PPL in the US and had no trouble flying in the UK. In the US, look to spend £300 on a return flight, and $40 per day on accomodation, about $80 per hour dual instruction in a C152, plus ground exam. Taking all this into account, assuming 50 hrs training and 4 weeks:-
$1120 accomodation
$525 flights
$4000 flight instruction
$75 ground exam
$300 flight test
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£3440 at todays exchange rate.
You will also have the benefit of being Au Fait with the FAA system, so if you choose to hour build / IR in the future, it'll be easy. You never know, you may decide to continue your FAA 'career', get CPL/IRd up, then convert....
Cheers
EA