Malaga city, not the resorts along the coast. Its called a 'city' but more like a fairly compact, coastal village, but not hilly. It used to be 3euro each from the airport with multiple stops en-route, or obviously a taxi. Pre-covid, I went several times as had a friend living there. I found it a mix of locals, Spanish tourists and some international tourists.
Beach, picasso museum, good food, Atarazanas fresh food/veg market, cathedral and lots more. There is castle on the hill, but I recall multiple steps getting up there.
I stayed at the NH Malaga the first time we went which was a hotel. It was fine, but the room fairly small and I prefer an apartment with a separate space to sleep now.
Subsequent times we stayed at Santa Cruz apartments. They have different rooms depends on availability and what you want. It meant we could re-heat snacks, eat out or eat in if we wanted and was much larger a hotel room. Its right behind the fresh fruit/veg market along with an aldi and other supermarkets nearby.
Edited to say that I 'think' there were about 5 steps from the street level to get to the lift in those apartments. Just trying to recall 🤔
https://www.santacruz-apartments.com/index.php?lng=en