A friend and I went to Phoenix, AZ for 4 weeks and did 100 hours each. Good weather every day and Sky Harbour is good fun. We were at Deer Valley and rented our C172's from Westwind Aviation. Very nice people and at the time we paid $99 p/hr wet! Chandler also looked good although we only flew in through there, never actually had experience of the companies on the airfield.
The only thing I would say is that its worth getting a Garmin equipped aircraft or, like we did, buy a second hand one online and then sell it at the end of your trip. But try not to become reliant on it. It's just a nice to have bit of kit when you're in the middle of no where over New Mexico or taking the long way round to Lake Havasu for lunch where you'll not see another sausage for an hour at a time.
As mentioned above, there's loads to see if you venture West. We did a 5 day tour up the West Coast spending a night in each place...starting with Vegas and ending with Palm Springs. California is beautiful from the air and the LAX VFR Transit is a must, as is the lovely Steak Restaurant in Santa Barbara although for the life of me I can't remember the name of it.