Alora would be worth considering. It's just 25 miles from Malaga on the road to El Chorro and the lakes of Ardales. It's a small white town with enough bars and good restaurants to ensure an enjoyable stay with a very Spanish atmosphere. It also has a handy rail connection to Malaga.

http://www.motionviews.com/towns/alora_i...

Benalmadena has lots of restaurant and a nice Chinese near the square. There is also a nice marina nearby to walk along.

I would say Antequera - meets all your criteria.

El Torcal looms over it and should provide some good scenery.

Anything smaller is likely to be pretty dead, summer or not. Anything closer to the coast is brit expat city.

benalmadena pueblo (It's the old town back up off the coast)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=b...

I am looking for ideas for a nice town to stay in up to an hour inland from Malaga airport. We always stay along the coast but thought that in March as its not as though we can use the beach we would go inland.

We have visited Ronda many times but it is a little too far and having been there before we would like to try somewhere different. We would like a pretty town where we can wander out every night and find plenty of tapas bars and maybe a restaurant or two, somewhere with some (Spanish) life.

Any ideas would be great then I can start looking at owners direct etc at houses to rent!