This was my advice to another guy a few days ago. I edited it for you a bit.
Idk if you in the US
You want a stainless steel hookah. These will last you forever and are easy to clean and do not ghost.
The clouds and flavor are not determined by what hookah you get but by your pack, bowl and heat management.
Any hookah over $250 is gonna be a waste of money since you'll just be paying for hype/cool purge. Unless your getting a premium pipe like aeon or Steamulation.
Quality of life feature that you want to look for in a hookah are a diffuser and a removable tray .
The alpaca mini rook and provost are an excellent combo for endgame results.
Just go on https://hookahunltd.com a pick one you like. The dude who runs the site is very critical (in a good way) and only picked the best of the best or worth it for the money.
Recommend brands are trifecta blonde and dark, haze, chaos, and overdozz.
For gear (pipe/bowls...ect) https://hookahunltd.com has the best prices.
For shisha hookahshisha.com and southsmoke.com have the best prices. Southsmoke has a reddit discount code floating somewhere in the sub and hookahshisha has one as well, strictlyshisha for 15% off.
For coals you have two options - Cocourth or charco flare cubes. I smoke everyday so I buy lounge cases since you save a lot of money doing that,
Burner - Hookah itself does not smell bad but lighting the coal do. If you can you should 100% light the coals outside, If not make sure you are in a well ventilated area.
You also need a silicone hose + a handle if it doesn't come with the hookah you pick up
Place to learn. Also check out the Youtube page
If you get the provost you are going to wat to use 2 layers of generic HD foil.
For the foil pattern, do the 1st row of holes 2 to 3mm away from the edge/rim. 2 to 3 mm apart. 2nd row 2mm in from the 1st row.