Even on Earth, with weather and generous erosion, large portions of land are very dense forests or very rough mountains.
Well, yeah. You pick those.
It's why Blue Origin does their tourist flights out in the desert.
We've even found some specific such sites. Forest coverage turns out to be a very minor issue on Mars.
https://www.space.com/nasa-perseverance-mars-rover-sample-re...
That's two of the most famous sci-fi franchises in the world, so I don't think sci-fi creators are as guilty of ignoring this possibility as GP seems to think.
Any supermarket car park, for a start.
Plus it would be handy for picking groceries so you can have a cup of tea and something to eat while you figure out how you're going to invade.
There is a brief mention of chaos terrain while he searches the surface of Mars for an interesting plot.
Edit: I think it's an aerial picture, but my brain insists on seeing it as one taken from the surface.
Reminds me of "name one thing in this picture"
Bit apparently it’s more banal, and sediment doesn’t need a river or a liquid at all. It’s any kind of deposit. So wind can deposit sedimen, volcanic ash is sediment glaciers deposit it etc.
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/first-tv-image-of-mars-han...