We stayed at this hotel in October, expecting a charming hotel in a charming old town on the Costa del Sol. We first of all can´t recommend the Costa del Sol to anyone due to the horrible amount and type of development that´s going on there. The Hotel La Fonda has not only a view of this development, but is in the process of redoing it´s parking lot. As a result, the hotel views look out onto the parking lot construction, with a view of all the construction cranes in the background. Far from charming. The breakfast included by the hotel consisted of machine coffee, machine juice and tasteless food. The orange juice was like colored water, no flavor at all. Sorry, but can´t recommend this hotel. We actually cancelled our second night and went on to stay in Arcos de la Fronterra.

We're a young couple (mid 20's) and we stayed in a 2 bed apt for 2 weeks. It was a minutes walk to a local grocery store and the hotel reception which was manned 24 hrs and they were helpful and spoke english well. Apt was well equipped for our needs and very clean and the bin, bed, towels changed regularly. We never went in the pool as we were out and about most days, but what we did see of it, it was VERY quiet and peacefull, only problem seemed there were only several sunloungers and half the pool was in the shade most of the day due to it being in a court yard.
The first day we walked to the sea front which was downhill (steep)and took about 30 mins. We later found out about a regular bus service from the village right into Benalmadena Costa and the Marina for 1.05 euros each and took 20-30 mins. From here you can get a bus to torremelinos, malaga, fuiengerola, marbella etc. We would recomend to anyone (maybe not a young family as there is not a lot to do in the way of entertaining children) but it is a lovely quiet traditional spanish village. There are however restaurants which open till approx midnight and a couple of english run bars. All in all this is a a beautiful place which we would definately return to.

My partner and I stayed in the hotel, not the apartments. The room was adequate but with no full length mirror or balcony on which we could sit out and enjoy a drink. The breakfast was dire, not even worth the effort of getting out of bed for. The views from the terrace were nice but spoilt somewhat by the numerous cranes and lorries trundling up and down. The pool area was very limited, only about 11 sunbeds and with a small area of approx 15ftx6ft in the sun and that was in the afternoon only. The receiption staff were horrid, very unfriendly and abrupt. We were not offered assistance with our cases and had to walk down four flights of stairs (no lift) to our room on arrival. Our corridor smelled of sewers sometimes. There was no bar or bar area.
However I must mention a couple of good points - the cleaners were lovely and the bathroom was a good size and had a power shower. Sorry to disagree with previous reviews, but I would definately not recommend or return to this hotel ever!

we arrived on 28th June and were 'greeted' by a sullen Spanish man, who didn't bother to speak, or offer any help, just waved in the general direction of our room. My sister and I struggled with our goods and chattels down the 60 steps that led to our room. We had requested a sea view, so on arrival eagerly threw open our french windows to discover we were thoroughly barred in. If we clung to our bars we could make out the sea miles away from our 'balcony over the Mediterranean'. There were no tea or coffee facilites, the mini bar had strict instructions that we were not to 'introduce' our stuff in it. The satellite TV had no English speaking channels. We had nowhere to sit out, nor a bar to order a drink and the small pool only had a narrow margin containing 11 sunbeds to cater for this hotel, it's sister hotel, and the various apartments through the village. The sun shone briefly over the poolsides and we only once managed to bag a sunbed, even though our German neighbours sniffed and tutted at our muscling in. The day we arrived we noticed the cookery school was buzzing, and they had a patio with rattan furntiure and sumptious cushions and immediately went to book a meal there. We were told it was too late, the school was closing that day and would not re-open until sometime in September. And sure enough the sumptious cushions were packed away and the doors locked that very day!
We were only bed and breakfast thank goodness, the food was horrible. We only had the coffee once and stuck to water and fruit and yoghurt. The breakfast room was unkempt and the curtains were stuck to the glass overlooking the pool with fly dung. We ate on the balcony, which had garden type plastic chairs and tables and overlooked a car park, and roadworks which nobody ever worked on, perhaps they were a permanent feature the hotel forgot to mention. The car park also contained bottle banks and very large rubbish bins where the locals came each morning to dump their rubbish. Nobody closed the lids after dumping, so starving cats came to look for food inside them.
One day we sneaked onto the balcony to try to catch a few rays as we had nowhere else to sit out. There was an outside kitchen/BBQ, and we'd noticed a bucket containing round things wrapped in tinfoil that morning and they were still there now, and it was afternoon. Being curious, my sister had a look inside one of the foils and found cooked jacket potato. They must have been there from the night before,stood all day in the sun and later we watched them being re-heated to order for those on half board!
The restaurant belonging to the hotel was completely empty during our stay, and needless to say we were never tempted to book in there. The short walk to the beach was also an exaggaration, we walked for about an hour but after seeing three rats crossing the road in front of us we were too scared to carry on, and flagged down a kind Spanish lady who gave us a lift in her car the rest of the way. We then walked into Benalmadina and caught a bus back to Pueblo. This is our third holiday so far in 2006 and it is the worst, we're usually well pleased with even simple accomodation. I am so glad to be home!