Sometimes I need this but it's a pain to type, so here is how to iterate through current screen areas
import bpy
for window in bpy.context.window_manager.windows:
for area in window.screen.areas:
if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
print('yes!')
and deeper
import bpy
for window in bpy.context.window_manager.windows:
for area in window.screen.areas:
if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
print('yes!')
print(dir(area))
for space in area.spaces:
print(space.type)
if space.type=='VIEW_3D':
print(dir(space))