There are 5 choices I'm really glad I made on my first African safari trip — but one thing I'd skip next time

As an avid traveler, I've booked many trips without a travel agent.

However, I felt I was over my head when starting to plan my first trip to Africa. Navigating transportation transfers, vaccine requirements, hotel bookings, and excursions felt overwhelming.

So, after reading many positive reviews, I booked with a Tanzania-based tour agency, Colours of Africa. The agency handled a lot of logistics and took all the stress out of planning for me.

Plus, when the airline lost our luggage, the agency staff were a huge help. They took us shopping for essentials and made sure our belongings were delivered to us as soon as they were located.

Many safaris take place in remote areas that aren't easy to reach.

To get from Mt. Kilimanjaro to Serengeti National Park, we had the choice to take a one-hour direct charter flight or drive six hours.

Although driving would've likely been cheaper, we chose the $145 flight. It saved us a lot of time, and it was really cool to see the park (and some zebras) from above as we landed.

The Ngorongoro Crater is in a very remote part of Tanzania. It took us about two and a half hours of driving to get to the area from the Serengeti, but the trek was worth it.

The crater and our nearby luxury hotel, the Grand Melia, had some of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. I was also fascinated learning about the local Masai culture from our guide.

Plus, I really wanted to see lions with long manes during our trip and the crater was the only place I saw them.

I'm always a fan of all-inclusive meal packages, especially on safari trips with limited or no nearby off-resort dining options.

Once we did the math, we found the all-inclusive meal plan at our main resort was a better value than paying for our food à la carte.

Plus, the prepaid package allowed us to feel less stressed about budgeting throughout the trip and to just enjoy our food.

Long layovers can be brutal and tough to avoid when going from the United States to remote parts of Africa.

To make our 10-hour layover in Nairobi more bearable, we paid for Kenya Airways lounge access, which I highly recommend. Five hours of access can cost about $40 per person.

Although the lounge wasn't perfect, it had air conditioning, and we appreciated the complimentary food and drinks.

We originally thought it'd be nice to end our long journey with a few beach days in Zanzibar, an archipelago known for its beautiful beaches and spice production.

A few beach days seemed like the perfect, relaxing ending to our long journey, but that wasn't the case.

Unfortunately, our resort was on a public beach that felt jam-packed from morning to night. We couldn't step foot off the resort property onto the beach without being approached by individuals selling items or drinks.

We also stopped by Stone Town, which was a fairly long ride from our resort. It had shops and spice tours, but there wasn't a ton we wanted to do in the city — so it didn't seem worth the visit for us, either.