Ierapetra is a modern city with mostly large concrete buildings. Only the center in the old city with its buildings from the Turkish time and the fishing port is still really authentic. Here are the narrow streets with nice small cozy traditional houses where you can walk around. At the harbor front there are many restaurants and kafenions where you can have a snack or a drink. Here the youth gathers in a couple of the trendy bars. In front of the town hall several artefacts from the antiquity have been put on display, including a sarcophagus and some antique columns. More objects can be seen at the Archeological Museum of Ierapetra.

At the end of the boulevard is the Venetian fortress of Kales and you come to a square with a clock tower and two churches on it. There is a harbor with colorful fishing boats and you can book an excursion here to the island of Chrissie, which lies off the coast of Ierapetra. Here on this island you have a beautiful sandy beach.

On the east side of Ierapetra you find the long beach of the city which runs for kilometers. Here are the most hotels. In spite of the hotels the beach is not really busy and large parts of it are without sunbeds and umbrellas. On some places there are rocks in the sea.