When i did my first safari, I decided SA would be my destination. I was still a student and so cost was an important factor to me. The cost of the airline ticket to SA and hunting on offer was best suited to my budget.
I did a lot of searching around online at different outfitters websites looking at what animals where available to hunt and for how much. I decided upon doing a mixed trophy and cull package as it offered more shooting for my money and a few trophy's to take home. I decided that I would hunt for 7 days with 2 days for travel.
I decided I would like to shoot a trophy Impala, Springbok and Warthog. Then 4 cull animals, which I had not shot in my trophy animal list to get the greatest variety of hunting.
Do your research into what animals you might like to hunt as all are different, have different prices and may occur in different areas.
I made a list of outfitters and emailed them explaining my request. 90% of the outfitters got back to me and in the end I settled on the one that had been the most helpful, accommodating to my needs, prices met my budget and who I had a good gut feeling about.
I took my own firearm (.270) and the outfitter helped me fill out the paperwork to do this, provided me with step by step instructions on the process, a few warnings and a map of where things were located at the airports I was travelling through.
The outfitter picked me up at the airport and helped me collect my firearms. I could not afford the cost of having shoulder mounts done, so instead I had my Impala and Springbok as skull mounts and flat skins and then had the Warthogs tucks mounted on shield. This was a fraction of the cost and looks great with no worry of the quality of the mount deteriorating over time.
Also - make sure you take a camera and a ton of pictures! You only get 1 first safari and you will want to remember it!