Personally, I am experienced at C/C++ and am now learning C# myself. I wouldn't wish Visual C++ on anybody now that I know what C# can do. So much of the "visual" part in C++ is manual -- from controlling user controls on a form, to keyboard and mouse control, and so on....
In short, go to C#. You might want to at least touch on C a bit to get the basics down but if you already have programming experience, I'd go right to C#.
Try the Deitel books.