My husband and I stayed in the Marina del Sol part of the resort for a week for £99 on the basis that we would attend a timeshare presentation. Our assigned holiday consultant, Deano, was a very nice chap and it wasn't too difficult to spend a morning with him, resisting buying a timeshare. The morning presentation included a buffet breakfast which was really very nice, although we had to sit around for quite a while before being let loose on it, resulting in me getting a bit 'hangry'. Deano's boss made the occasional appearance, attempting the hard sell, but that wasn't so difficult to rebuff. We were firm with them and they returned us to our accommodation after less than 4 hours.
The accommodation was very good, in particular it was very well equipped with washing up liquid and fly spray and a welcome pack of eggs, bread, milk, butter, jam, OJ, tea, coffee, filters, salt, pepper and biscuits! It was reasonably modern and comfortably furnished. Although it was a shame not to have patio doors taking advantage of the view, our ground floor apartment had a lovely grassed area outside which had an open 180 degree view across rooftops to the mountains and sea. The 2 pools were very nice and clean.
We had tea and cakes at the little coffee shop on the resort, which was reasonable value, and we had dinner on our first night at one of the resort restaurants, El Rancho, which was overpriced slop. If we hadn't arrived so late at night we would never have eaten somewhere like this. It was both the most expensive and the worst meal of our whole holiday.
The good news is there are many great restaurants and tapas bars to be found in the centre of Fuengirola, the most authentic ones being just off the main square and not in the 'strip' fronting the sea. Taking a fairly leisurely stroll from our apartment (which was near CLC main reception) you could reach the main square in 45 minutes. You don't really hit any eateries until about 25 minutes in to this walk. The first part of the walk is grotty - either walk along 'dog beach' or take the footbridge across the motorway to reach the seafront promenade footpath. The dog beach route takes you through a tunnel (basically a large surface water drain) to the beach, which rather than a romantic stroll is more like a careful avoidance of all the dog mess (it's where the locals take their dogs to relieve themselves). The other option is a dusty wasteland path up to the footbridge and across the motorway. We decided the latter was better. Once you've got to the seafront promenade path though (about 10 mins in) the walk is rather nice.