Tizzy - don't write off the travel book, lol. Definitely read it but fill in the blanks from forum members on sites such as this. The book will give you the basics (and depending on the book hopefully will be accurate) but a little bit of both types of information cannot hurt. Book-wise, I've always found the Lonely Planet books to be pretty good...I've met some of their writers over the years which means they were scoping out the "good spots",