I use Chamois Glide on the portions of my butt which will be under pressure. On my first tour, in my excitement, I failed to do this the first two days, by the evening of day 2, I had severe chafing and feared I'd have to abandon my ride. After applying Chamois Glide to the affected ares, it was like a trip to Lourdes ... the lame could walk again (or in my case the chafed could sit and pedal again). I continue to use it with every ride and have relatively few problems in that regard.
Regarding your saddle, everyone is different. Some here swear by the Brooks saddles. I never had much luck with them, I swear by the Terry Liberator Y Gel saddle. One of my riding partners tried over a dozen saddles before finding one he liked ... and it was designed for a woman's anatomy. Go figure...
Happy (saddle) hunting!
Dan