The % of lessons which get cancelled on the day (weather, duff plane, instructor not about, etc) is fairly high, so an airfield well within an hour's drive is highly desirable, IMHO.
You will pay for landing fees one way or another. There are about 50-80 landings plus perhaps 20 T&Gs in the average 50-60hr PPL.
A fair rate varies hugely. I can tell you how much it costs to actually own and fly a plane, but that's not the answer. Different outfits have different overheads.
Also different students get on differently in different outfits, and with different instructors. All I can say is that if you want to learn to fly for real and do a good # of hours, you will need to buy into a plane, or buy a plane, eventually, so look for learning in something close to what you will be flying afterwards - otherwise you just waste more money.