Derek's place is fantastic! It is super relaxing, really beautiful and well appointed -- there's even an iPod dock to play music from. The bathroom alone makes it worth it. Derek himself was friendly, helpful and quite an interesting guy. All in all a great place to spend a vacation.

Note that the apartment is about a 20-30 minute walk from Abbot Kinney (the main drag of Venice). This was fine for me, as the walk was quite enjoyable. There is also tons of street parking, so, if you're driving, no worries.