"I don't really want to spend an hour 'mastering the art of hovering' and a friendly instructor who doesn't mind flying somewhere interesting, and a quick cup of coffee in the middle would be nice."
You are clearly either an optomist or superman! I'm about 20hrs in and still have not mastered the art of hovering... Sadly just about everything else (landing, taking off, not spilling your coffee and keeping your instructor friendly) does seem to depend on mastering that subtle art... So, unless you can do it, there is not much point in flying off anywhere (unless you especially want your FI to gain lots of extra experience of landing at other airfields)...
Perhaps I'm a slow learner but I just don't want you to be disappointed if hovering doesn't click within the sixty minutes...
Kind regards and good luck with it,
M.