We stayed for a week at Vera's apartment in Dubrovnik, and had a wonderful time. The description and photos here are very accurate -- the apartment is just outside the old city walls (Ploce Gate) and across the street from the pretty public beach. (This is a very desirable part of the city to stay in -- much quieter than the Pile Gate side -- as evidenced by two of the city's top hotels, the Excelsior and Argentina, both just a few steps up the road from the apartment.)
The views of the Adriatic from the apartment are incomparable! So beautiful to wake up to each morning! The rooms are spacious and well-equipped, each with air conditioning and huge windows. One room has a king bed and the other has 2 twins. There is a clothes washer and dishwasher -- both very helpful when traveling with children! The apartment was very clean and well-maintained and Vera is helpful with info / advice / help as needed. I appreciated that the apartment had things like salt, olive oil and coffee filters, which made it feel more welcoming than other places we've rented. Not to mention cleaning supplies, ample bath towels and loads of guide books!
We spent a day exploring Dubrovnik and walking the city walls (very beautiful) and a day sea-kayaking around Lokrum Island, which was SO fun. Don't bother with the sea kayaking tours, which are expensive and you'll be with 12 other boats on busy days. Instead, just walk down to Banje Beach and rent your own kayak (75 kuna / hour, I believe). We did the same route as the tours, but took our time and had the caves all to ourselves. Our 6 year old son just loved it!
We took the local city bus to Lapad Beach one day, which is a beautiful bay for swimming, but the beach is no nicer than Banje (all the beaches seem to be pebbly vs. sandy) and the area is very built-up with huge resorts. Instead, I wished we'd taken a day trip to Korcula, which is the one place nearby that many people recommended and we didn't get to see.
We also rented a car for 2 days from one of the local car rental shops (a few doors down from the apartment, just across the street from the grocery store -- again, all super convenient) and went to Mostar (in Bosnia Herzegovina) and the Bay of Kotor (in Montenegro), which were both fantastic! Fortunately, Vera's apartment was full of guidebooks (thank you!), so we could plan our stay real-time and take advantage of all the nearby sites.