I'm going to STRONGLY advise against boolean. Why? Because unlike in some other programs it ruins your geometry and renders it useless with any advanced renderers.

I would recommend actually modeling them in. Add divisions to the surface where you want to add the details and then cut out the polys.
I know this may seem a lot more instensive, and frankly I do believe it is, but don't rely on such a silly boolean tool unless you must. If you ever want to animate it can cause some nasty issues too.

But for all intensive purposes, it is up to you.