Thanks, heh, I’ve got more, you shouldn’t encourage me. ;’)
After getting a body of experience at making that months-long trip, and working in Mars orbit, then returning, while maintaining a continuous human presence there, and thoroughly surveying parts of the surface, it would be time to drop crews down to take a look and build habitats.
My first choice would be to drop in a pretty large, perhaps articulated, motor home style live-in rover, which would be checked out remotely before getting its first crew. Then the crew would land, attach their lander to the bumper (a trailer, actually), and explore the surface in person, in a shirtsleeve environment, protected from the continuous hail of particles and rocks from space. Like the Moon, Mars has a surface where the dominant force at work is impact. Mars also has a tenuous atmosphere which leads to sandstorms, but ultimately impact rules.
The surface exploration could go on throughout the sunny season, using photovoltaics for all or most energy needs. Probably the equatorial area, which gets sunlight all year round, would be the place to land the vehicle.
Fuel for the return to orbit might be brought along on the drop, or might be dropped in later at a rendezvous point. Hate to be wrong about that though, eh? Fixed habitats could actually be prefabricated on Earth and robotically deployed upon landing. They’d be big plastic bag greenhouses. Also needed would be an earthen barrier surrounding the greenhouses, against an outbreak of the sandstorms. Such a barrier would be some protection, but the plastic would definitely have to be tough, and anchored into the ground (and not just at the edge) with long augers.
And crap dropping from space would damage the greenhouses, so duct tape would be needed all the time.
The fixed habitats would need to be near a water supply, and probably be equatorial so that photovoltaics could supply the power needed for melting the subsurface ice, nighttime lighting, heating, and other needs.