I agree with much of what Russel says.
I'm sure IO540 will be here soon, saying that PPL's don't get enough training to be able to do the sort of flying that they actually want to do. ie. they are afraid to venture too far from home. This I agree with too.
The simple fact is that by the time you've got your licence, you have been to pretty much everywhere that is within 1 hours flying of your home base. Anywhere that you haven't been to, will be soon covered by taking friends and family flying.
After the novelty of taking friends and family up, you'll want to go further afield. Then a number of issues arise.
1. Do you feel confident enough in your navigation over longer distances? Most people supplement their training with a gps to add confidence.
2. Do you feel confident operating into large international airports (especially if required to clear customs) or grass fields (which ever you didn't train on)?
3. Will your club let you take the aircraft away for more and half day?
4. Can you justify they cost of going further than 1 hour away from base? To travel 2 hours from base, means a 4 hour return journey, which is expensive.
As much as I love flying, I could have easily dropped out of flying too because of the above. I was lucky enough to join a club based at a large international airport (having learnt at an uncontrolled field). This gave me confidence at operating into places that I would never have dreamed of going near before, and increased my confidence to a very large extent. This club also had no problems with me taking an aircraft away for 2 days, with no minimum hours, and longer durations on request. I've also been Lucky enough to form some friendships with other pilots, which halves the costs. As a result over the past year, much of my flying has involved weekends away, rather than just a 1.5 hour bimble.
If I was still renting from a school, and could only take the plane for 2 or 3 hours, and I didn't have the confidence to go further afield, I'm sure I would have much more difficulty in justifying the vast quantities of cash that I am spending on it.
Last weekend I took my father for his second flight, and we went from Dublin to Sligo for lunch. To me it was a great day out, as I got to spend a very enjoyable day with my father, doing something that I love. He really enjoyed himself too. When he noticed the rates on the notice board, he did a quick calculation and declared with shock, that for the cost of the trip we did, I could have bought an off peak return flight to the US. That sort of cost can be hard to justify if you're simply doing local bimbles over and over, in the same area. But with a club with good availablility, the confidence to travel internationally, and some flying buddies to share the flying & costs, the flying world beings much more interesting, and takes a lot longer to explore!
dp