Stayed here one night with my friend on friday for her birthday and we had an absolutely fantastic time.

My husband & I stayed at this resort, along with 2 friends. We had traded our time share through Interval International for a one bedroom condo, with a pull out sofa bed for our friends. The location is excellent & was within a 2 hour driving distance of everything that we wanted to see - Granada, Nerja, Ronda, Gibraltar, ferry to Morocco, etc.

We stayed in Cristina 308 and the view of the water from our balcony was beautiful. It was very windy during part of our trip, but the unit was situated so that you could sit out there & still be blocked from the wind while enjoying the view. The kitchen was well equipped with everything that we needed and the living room/dining area was a large enough space for the four of us to feel comfortable.

The staff at the front desk was very helpful in providing information and maps, and one staff member even lent me his copy of a guide book with hiking & adventure travel information on the area. Restaurants nearby were convenient. The Da Vinci Restaurant & the one called "The Restaurant" were the best of the four that we tried. We were not impressed with the Chinese food or the buffet restaurant.

The down sides to our unit included a few things:
We were given two twin beds in the bedroom for myself & my husband. They were attached to the headboards so they could not be moved together like in some European hotels. The twin beds would be a positive if I had been traveling with my sister or a friend, but in this situation, it was a negative. The comfort of the beds was adequate, but nothing to write home about. The pillows were too flat, but they were king size, so they could be folded in half.

The sofa bed turned out to be two twin sofa beds when pulled out. A couple of the slats in each were missing, so that left an area where the bed sagged on each.

The windows and doors did not seal well, so in the unseasonably cold weather with high winds, there was a significant draft coming into the living room, especially around the door to the balcony. This made it hard for our friends to sleep at night & they turned the heat way up. Since you pay for our electricity at this resort, it was an added expense that was not necessary if the seals had worked better.

We had an issue with a lack of hot water. When arriving, the shower had all of 3 minutes of hot water. We called maintenance & they were quick to respond. They turned up the heat on the hot water heater (a small, individual unit for each condo), but a few hours later when I showered, there was still no hot water. By morning, it was hot, but we could only get about 6 minutes of hot water out of the unit. We developed a system of turning off the water while soaping up & shampooing our hair & then turned it on only to rinse. This allowed two people to shower each morning & evening. If you're looking for a long, hot shower, this resort may not be right for you. Of course, this may not be a universal problem in all units.

Overall, for us, the benefits of the resort outweighed the negatives and we would stay there again.

Had a 2 weeks stay at Dona Lola, first week was a 2 bedroom and second a 1 bedroom, and we booked through RCI. The 1 bedroom apt. was small but clean and cozy. Little short of space but well equipped kitchen. The 2 bedroom apt. was spacious and well furbished. Had a few meals in the apt. and ate at the Italian restaurant where they had a brick oven, making fresh pizzas (don't rememeber the name). Food was really great and staff warm and friendly.

We have stayed at many 5 star hotels all over the world, but the service and effiiency at the Dona Lola far surpassed them all. We got a 7 star treatment right from check-in to check-out. The staff at the reception are extremely helpful and are glad to help you plan the day and even go out of their way to make reservations on trains.. etc.

Our boys 7 and 10, enjoyed the indoor heated pool, the snooker table and the pool, especially because it had a toddler pool where they could just fool around.

The only minus is the beach. I would not call it a beach actually its more a rocky patch with a lot of moss. But you can easily take a bus to Marbella which is just 15- 20 min away which is great.

We did not hire a car as the drivers on the highway drove at crazy speeds. We took a bus mostly (there are bus stops very close to the resort for either direction). We did not mind the wait at the bus stops ( they normally come in freq.of 30 mins).

A great place to go to is Mijas (around 20 min by taxi or a 20 min bus ride from Feungirloa),a small quiant town atop a hill with white washed houses, great views, horse and donkey drawn carraiges and tiny eateries and shops.

I would suggest that you stock up from the supermarkets across the hotel or get them before you head back from your day trips. The store in the resort selling eggs, bread, juice etc is slightly more expensive and the goods are not as fresh ( buy stuff only if really necessary.)

We were leaving at 5am for the airport and had booked a taxi with the hotel, and had requested the hotel staff to make sure that he comes at a particular spot near our apt. as we had a lot of luggage. We thought we had asked for too much, but the taxi was waiting at that very spot and very much on time.

We did not get a chance to thank the staff at Dona Lola, so take this opportunty to say a big Thank You to them for making our stay so very special !!!

What an experience. We have done some 63 exchanges and I must say this has been one of the best. The checkin at the reception area was done by a very pleasant gentleman called Antonio who spoke very good English. Instead of a pile of keys we were given just one plastic key. what a relief after staying at other resorts in Spain who still use metal keys. We stayed in Carolina a 2 bedroom unit. the unit was spotless including bathrobes. Nice touch. The fruit basket from the manager was also a nice touch that we have never experienced anywhere else. The one person that is really makes this resort standout is the activities director called Curro. I think this company is very fortunate to have such a person on their staff. My wife and I took advantage of his daily walks, his botany lesson and his animated Spanish lessons. My wife was very enthusiastic to have a real spanish lesson given by Curro. He did make it fun. The outdoor cooking lesson was one of my favorites. The nice thing was we got to eat it after it was made. Yum! Yum!. The grounds are very manicured and I can see the gardner takes pleasure in what he does. The beautiful pool by the sea is stunning. A restaurant is located in the middle. Unfortunately it was closed during our stay. We were approached by timeshare people. I went for the meeting and after some nice conversation I wanted to know some prices. Unfortunately with our dollar not being worth the same as the Euro, it was very expensive for us. I declined the offer to buy a week. I would do another exchange here tomorrow if I could. Highly recommended.