Ideas for nice towns between Malaga and Salobrena?

 Hi there, we have travelled many times to the Malaga area and have indeed stayed in Nerja and Almunecar and visited towns in the area such as Salobrena, Mijas etc, however, our minds are a little fuzzy as to which towns were which so I was wondering if anyone could suggest nice towns to stay in that side of Malaga, even venturing into the hills a little if possible but also places by the sea.

We are a 30 something couple, no kids, looking for a town that has plenty of nice restaurants and bars but still retaining that spanish feel.

Once I have some ideas I can then go and look at private rentals in those towns as currently there are just far too many to narrow it down to!

I look forward to hearing from you.

** EDITED - Advertising **

Competa, Canillas de Albaida, Archez in the hills above Torrox which is between Nerja and Torre del Mar.

Get to Salobrena, go a bit further towards Motril then turn up towards Granada.  Velez de Benaudalla is a really nice town about 15 mins drive inland and there's no limit to where you could go after that...Lanjaron, Orgiva, Bubion, Las Alpujarras...

Good luck!