Want to track a VOR? Just do that; it's enough for one trip.
If you set yourself a specific objective like that for a flight, remember that the PPL is a license to learn. There is no rule banning you from taking an instructor with you and making it a proper instruction flight. Learning how to track a VOR on your own might be doable, but instructors have a lesson plan for this, allowing you to make the best possible use of your airtime. The same goes for some other tasks: by taking an instructor with you, not as safety pilot but as instructor, you can learn things much more effectively and efficiently than on your own. (And you can still log the flight as P1.)
And specifically about tracking VORs: since you will want to learn how to intercept and track inbound/outbound radials, you're going to do this rather close to an actual VOR. But that VOR will also be used as a turning point by a lot of other aircraft. While you are concentrating on the needle in the cockpit, an instructor will handle the lookout for you.
Oh, and another tip which I haven't heard in this thread so far: if you have a flight simulator (MSFSX with a local scenery add-on for instance) then it might help tremendously to execute your upcoming flight in that sim before you actually fly it in the air. Some things (like anything related to instrument flight) are very easy to learn in the simulator while other things (aircraft control at the edge of the envelope for instance, or R/T) are not, so it's not a universal learning tool. But it may help you in getting confident in your planning of a flight, before actually undertaking it. And it much cheaper per hour than actual flight time. Heck, you can even legally fly a sim after having a drink or two at dinner.