Hi all

Before I go any further I am not being lazy and asking others to do the work for me. I am simply asking for pointers and suggestions. The problems we are faced with are listed below. These 'Problems' are making it difficult to find anything because of the number, age etc of family members. Also, we have never been self catering before (always stayed in a Hotel) so not sure how things work. Please read on and offer your suggestions. Finally, thank you in advance to any peeps who offer advice and help.

We have a list of musts:

Our family of 6 consists of: Mum, Dad, 14 year old son, 10 year old Daughter, 8 year old Son and Grandma.

Straight away, you can see that we are going to struggle sorting Hotels out because they want us to take 3 rooms, which increases the cost dramatically and also this option splits us all up. So, I did a bit of searching on the net and discovered that it is possible to get a 2 bed or 3 bed apartment. That way, we can all be together, albeit seperated by bedrooms.

So, we now know we want a 2 or 3 bed apartment.
Now, because of the ages of our kids (14yr old boy, 10yr old girl, 8yr old boy) it is ABSOLUTELY 100% VITAL that wherever we go there must be entertainment for kids of this age and also lots to do in the day time (Pools etc).

So, I did some searching on Google (lowcostholidays etc) but am very confused with the results that come up. The results mention rooms etc with ever increasing prices.

Therefore, I am asking if you guys would PLEASE suggest a lively resort (bearing in mind our family) where we can rent an apartment as mentioned. Even better would be some sites where I can view apartments and prices etc. Even better (being greedy now) would be some actual suggestions/prices etc.

We are fixed on going AFTER 20th August, so we can go 20th onwards.
We want 14 nights.
We would prefer to fly from Manchester or Liverpool, but would consider other Airports if there was a massve price difference.

We don't have a big bdget but I suppose at these dates we would have to allow £500 per person for the room and try and sort our own flights out. Is this realistic?
We chose Majorca because friends have told us there wil be lots to do for the kids which is a MUST, especially at night.
Can anybody help us? point us to a website where I should be looking? Are we doing the right thing going self catering just so we can all be together? PLEASE let me have your thoughts and suggestions peeps.
thank you in advance.