Beautiful place, in a fabulous location. The place was very well-equipped and stocked. It's literally a 3-4 minute walk to the iconic Venice beach in one direction and 3-4 minutes the other way to Abbott Kinney, a wonderful shopping location with kitchy boutique stores and such. The Venice canals are maybe a 10-minute stroll (and well worth seeing).
Things we enjoyed: The "boardwalk", which is really a concrete pedestrian/bike path all long the coastline. We biked up to Santa Monica Pier one day, which was fun (I Segway'd, which was pretty cool if you've never done it); The muscle guys doing their workouts at Muscle Beach; the amazingly talented kids at the skate park by the beach. If you want a unique sushi experience, drive a couple of miles to Sugarfish in Marina Del Ray (no reservations accepted, expect to spend an hour waiting for a table, but worth the wait!). Also, google the Annenberg Beach House 10 minutes away in Santa Monica - if they have a "pop-up open pool day", take advantage!