Good question. The basic 'guts' of an airport are covered quite well in Aerad/Jeppesen style charts. These are drawn up from
government issued charts like these. Approach charts
look like this. So using these and other charts, together with various notes you brief yourself on what you expect to see and how you actually use the airport. Local knowledge however can be useful. Like don't bother ever asking for a visual approach at Dusseldorf or Bremen. Even if you are the only person flying you won't get it - it's not allowed. However, at Hannover and Nuremberg the controllers couldn't be more helpful if they tried so at these airports you have the possibility of saving up to ten minutes of flying time. As as result, you plan your descent accordingly. At many UK airports they are so keen to maximise aircraft noise over houses underneath the approach path they'll insist on a minimum of a seven mile line up. But this stuff is just nice to know, not essential. So if you are going to a straight forward airport (Cat A) for the first time you will probably brief yourself in flight. For a slightly more complicated one (Cat B) you may well see what the limiting factors are before you set off. This will generally only take a few minutes though.