I stayed at the Guesthouse hotel (think that was the name?!), good rate, their free transport sometimes a bit useless though, I just took the public bus from the airport some times, as I actually knew precisely when it would leave and that it wouldn't take me on the scenic route. The apartments are a bit sparse, but, very cheap and it'll be more social, with hindsight I'd have stayed there instead.
When I was there we were all doing JAA study, my instructor was UK-trained & qualified, and we got ground school tutorial sessions on UK airspace, charts, circuits, RT etc. May have changed now though, I've heard they've now hooked up with Rainbow Air across the other side of the airport, and I know my instructor has moved on... with a lot of schools it's the quality of your particular instructor that make the difference. This FAA (aka ICAO-compliant!) thing is a cunning plan to attract more students primarily on the basis you'll save even more money.
I'd have thought if you're planning on going commercial (I hope to!) then a UK licence is better to start with, but, I noticed the other day that one of the integrated ATPL places (Stapleford?) includes an FAA PPL rather than a UK/JAR PPL if you do your initial flying at their US location, so perhaps it doesn't matter anymore.