Choosing a theme?

At first I thought it was just about choosing something you thought looked nice but now I see you also need one with good features, shortcodes, SEO stuff, page templates, etc. and I really have no idea so am hoping someone here could help me out a little.

So how can I choose a good theme for my site? I really want something with as many page templates, short codes, options, etc. as possible so I can really have a good control over how the site will look.

Any advice or suggestions?

Btw my site is going to be a travel guide/blog.