Mar Vista is near the center of LA's Westside. The city of Santa Monica  lies to the northwest, West LA to the north, Palms to the northeast, Culver City to the east, Del Rey to the southeast, and Venice to the southwest. Its approximate boundaries are the city limits of Culver City and the San Diego Freeway on the northeast and southeast, Walgrove Avenue on the southwest, and the Santa Monica Airport and National Boulevard on the northwest. Major thoroughfares through the district include Washington Place; Palms, Venice, Sawtelle, Inglewood, and Grand View Boulevards; McLaughlin, Barrington, Short, and Centinela Avenues; and Beethoven Street. The district uses zip code 90066 .

The Westdale area of northern Mar Vista — the area bounded by Sawtelle Boulevard, National Boulevard, Bundy Drive, and Palms Boulevard — is a neighborhood within the bounds of the Mar Vista Community Council.

Mar Vista is an economically diverse neighborhood of apartment buildings and single-family homes. The hilly areas near its border with Santa Monica, whose spectacular ocean views give Mar Vista its name, hold some of the most expensive land in the community.

Mar Vista is considerably less densely populated than neighboring Palms, as its homeowners' associations successfully fended off the 1950s up-zoning that changed much of Palms and West Los Angeles from suburban areas to renter-dominated urban neighborhoods. It should be noted, though, that some 60 percent of the district's residents live in rental housing, owing to the density of apartment buildings on thoroughfares like Venice Boulevard and Barrington Avenue.