Although there are bound to be more qualified people to answer this, I was at Cottesmore for a week with UAS a few summers ago.
The mess is pretty good, but rather cavernous (since it was once the TTTE) and therefore a bit empty. 1 sqn I visited for only a day but they were very welcoming, and I had a few beers in the bar with them later.
Not really sure about what there is do to locally, but as regie mental says, the station is pretty standard, although it seems to be one of the better equipped and more modern - plus there are plenty of other bases around to escape to!
Good luck with ground school, and have fun on the hold
Hungry