The Skills Test examiners critera for pass or fail, at the end of the day, is one simple question: "Do I want my relatives to fly as passenger with this candidate?" Sure, based on that there are a few performance criteria you have to meet, but if the examiner feels unsafe, you're not going to get the ticket no matter how good your 180 on instruments was.
So, if you get the ticket, theoretically, you should be able to fly with passengers, no problem. Although most of us do one or more solo flights after getting the ticket anyway.
As far as using the plane for transport: without an IR (or very, very good and predictable weather) a plane is a toy, not a means of transport. So if you base your vacation around an itinerary where you have to be at suchandsuch place at suchandsuch time, and back at suchandsuch time, plan your trip by road and, as said, get checked out and rent a plane locally. If however, your passengers enjoy the adventure of VFR flying and are willing to throw an itinerary out the window because of the weather or other circumstances then go by plane.
If you go touring, talk things over with an instructor or other experienced pilot from the place you're renting from. Discuss the planned route, but also discuss very practical issues like tie-ing down an aircraft for the night (do you lock the aircraft or not?), how to obtain fuel/oil away from base, how to obtain weather, notams etc. en-route, that sort of thing. During your PPL those are the things that you're likely not have come into contact with.
And in any case, build your experience slowly. Initially, restrict your flying to two hours planned flight time, with enough fuel for four hours, and a maximum of four hours flying per day. Plan for easy navigation, don't do serious night flying even if you have the NQ. Don't cross mountain ranges if you don't have specific mountain flying experience or some experience with high altitude flying. Don't fly in marginal weather. Avoid, if possible, areas with no forced landing sites or alternates. Limit overwater flying. That sort of thing.