Son - they recommend (who is "they" hahaha) you spend at least a week at home if you want to get your baby into a routine or are trying to sort out the self settling issue. If he is going down to sleep in the same place every time then he gets used to it being his "sleep place" and he knows he has to go to sleep, once he knows that and starts getting used to going to sleep at certain times of the day then you can take him out and he will sleep anywhere cos he knows its sleep time.
I took Caleb to Mothers group the other day and i thought it was going to be a disaster and throw our routine off but bang on 2.30 he started falling asleep (like he would at home) and so i just put him in his pram and he slept for two hours, everyone elses babies were screaming and it didnt even wake him up!

I just take each day as it comes, sometimes we have bad days (like the other morning i didnt give him his usual face and bum wash with a warm flannel, which he loves, and he didnt sleep from 6am - 10am! but he caught up later in the day) and we have good days, but i know that any day can be the day he decides to throw the routine out the window!