Hi Julie
we went with Thomas Cook from Newcastle last year, me husband, 2 kids and my parents. We booked the Makris, which has a MASSIVE 2 bed apartment on the top floor with 3 balconies, 2 very large bedrooms ( 1 double and 2 single beds) a very large and well equipped kitchen. Although it technically slept 6, the 5th and 6th beds were a sofa bed in the kitchen which we didn't use. My parents had a ground floor studio which again was very clean and quite big. The pool at the Makris was absolutely lovely and almost empty for most of the time so our kids (age 10 and 8 at the time) thoroughly enjoyed having it all to themselves. It is about 15 mins stroll to the beach which we didn't find a problem at all (and very close to the most fantastic bakery EVER) and there were loads of places to eat on the way to or from the beach.
This year my parents are at the Horizon Hotel and we are at the Bardis Studios which we have booked independently, although we are flying with Thomas Cook again because the flight times are MUCH better with the kids (although an extra £300 despite booking in January). The transfer time as you know is about 2 hours with THomas Cook, but with booking direct we are getting a taxi which will be totally worth the 50 euros to avoid the endless bus stops! I hope you get booked up. We are now Arilliacs and hope to keep coming back year after year.
Jude