Flew to Girona with Ryanair last September. No problems. Rented a Villa in Calogne ( Near Palomos) for ten days. Loved the area. Swam at loads of lovely beaches - Sa Tuna, Fornells, Tamariu, LLafranc and Tossa. St Antonio was close to us and was nice but looked like an upmarket Costa del Sol.
Eating out was very reasonable. Lovely towns to have a potter were Pals, Peratallada and Besalu. Girona was lovely for a days sight-seeing and shopping. There is a big water park near Calogne which would be great for the children.
Our Villa was in a complex called Cabanyes which was located up the side of a mountain outside Calogne. Might not suit small children. We used http://www.holiday-rentals.com/ and found them very good.
I also flew to girona and stayed one night in girona lovely small city tayed in lovely hotel called penisular very resonable went to tossa de mar for a week it was lovely nice places to eat we hired a car and drove to lovely places like begur and callea de parfungella it is a much nicer view of spain than costa del sol
Flew this route SNN-GRO last weekend, it was excellent. 2 hour flight time, so its not like the short hops across to the UK where the staff are manically trying to sell you something
Keep an eye out for the fabulous views of the Pyrenees. Barcelona's only about an hour by bus from Girona as well - ideal day trip.