On our travel-planning site, Venice for Visitors, we've just launched a preview version of a new section: Venice Hotel Directions.

The pages have step-by-step walking directions to individual hotels from nearby transportation points, such as Alilaguna airport-boat stops, the Santa Lucia Railroad Station, or airport buses and taxis at the Piazzale Roma.

Each page has a customized Google satellite map of the area around the hotel, with icons for the featured hotel and others in the neighborhood that can serve as landmarks.

We've also included links to Venere hotel pages (featuring TripAdvisor reviews), Booking.com hotel pages, and the hotels' own Web sites for the convenience of readers who haven't yet reserved rooms and want to compare rates, reviews, and availability. 

As of February 10, 2013, we have about three dozen Venice Hotel Directions pages online. That number should grow to at least 100 by the end of the month.

We hope you'll find our new Venice Hotel Directions pages useful, either for printing out and taking with you or for viewing on your smartphone or tablet after you arrive in Venice.

Again, you'll find the preview version of our new section at:

Directions to Venice Hotels (Veniceforvisitors.com)

ABOVE: The Ponte di Calatrava is higher than most of Venice's bridges, but it has shallow steps and a gentle incline, so it's more manageable with luggage than you might guess.

We often get e-mails from readers who are worried about struggling over Venice's footbridges with luggage and other gear. Their concern isn't unwarranted: Venice is a city with more than 400 bridges--nearly all with steps--and few of those bridges are equipped with ramps for wheeled suitcases, strollers, or wheelchairs.

To make life easier for readers who'd like to minimize the up-and-down aspect of reaching their hotels, we've added a new feature to our main Venice for Visitors travel-planning site: "How Many Bridges to Cross?" hotel listings.

The listings consist of more than 20 pages, organized into three categories:

Popular areas (Piazza San Marco, St. Mark's Basin Waterfront, Rialto Bridge).

Transportation hubs (Piazzale Roma and Santa Lucia Railroad Station).

Cruise terminals (Marittima, San Basilio).

Alilaguna airport boat (individual stops on the Blue and Orange Lines).

On each page, you'll find hotels grouped by how many bridges you'll need to cross to reach them from the nearest transportation point: e.g., "0 bridges to cross," "1 bridge to cross," or "2 bridges to cross." (In most cases, we stop at two bridges, because the point of the "How Many Bridges?" guide is to help our readers limit their step-climbing.)

Click on a listing, and you'll be taken to a page at Venere or Booking.com where you can see photos of the hotel, read reviews by paying guests, and check availability and prices for the dates of your visit.

Note: There are many fine hotels in Venice that aren't within a bridge or two of public transportation. If you're traveling light, you may not mind a long walk over multiple bridges. But if you're wrestling with heavy bags, a perambulator, or a wheelchair, check our "How Many Bridges to Cross?" hotel listings before booking a room in Venice.

Do you plan trips on your smartphone, or do you plan to bring your iPhone, Android phone, or Windows phone with you to Venice? If so, take a look at our new Venice for Visitors mobile section at m.veniceforvisitors.com.

We've edited, reformatted, and (in some cases) rewritten more than 200 of our most popular and informative pages for display on smartphones.

The pages are designed for easy reading when you're holding your phone vertically. We've even made the menu text larger, with more vertical space between menu items, to make site navigation easier.

In addition, we've made our main site at veniceforvisitors.com easier to read if you're using a full-size or mini-tablet such as the iPad, iPad Mini, or Nexus 7. Our goal is to provide you with the most comprehensive Venice travel information on the Web, whether you're using a desktop computer, a laptop or netbook, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Travel tip: When you're in Venice, you can save money by disabling cellular roaming and using Wi-Fi whenever possible. Venice's municipal Wi-Fi network is affordable and offers decent, if limited, coverage. For more information, see:

Venice Wi-Fi network (PC and tablet-friendly page)

Venice Wi-Fi network (smartphone-friendly page)