My wife and I stayed at Creta Suites in 2004, we got the room via an RCI timeshare swap. Ierapetra is on the far side of Crete from the airport/seaport at Heraklion, and after a long night drive over the mountains dodging Greek drivers (scary stuff) we finally found the resort, which is actually in a small village east of Ierapetra proper.

The resort is on the middle of a mountainside facing the Libyan Sea on Crete's southern shore, and a bit hard to find in the dark. Don't be fooled by RCI's promise of the beach being "a short walk"--it's more like a long hike, if you're crazy enough to go on foot. The room was a pretty standard timeshare suite, with cheap-ish furniture and small but functional bathroom and kitchen fixtures/appliances; about what we expected. The balcony view is wonderful. The location is very nice for exploring eastern Crete, a reasonabl drive from Sitia and many other lovely villages and cities. Ierapetra itself is charming, but you probably don't want to spend more than a couple of days on it. The south coast is much calmer and less crowded than the touristy north coast, and we appreciated the lack of hustle and bustle.

The evening caretaker at Creta Suites was a wonderful host. I wish I could say the same for the daytime receptionist, who was much more interested in making iced coffees for herself than assisting the guests. Again, contrary to RCI's promotions, there was no restaraunt or bar open on site, and no internet connection (the last was not important to us, but I didn't appreciate the dishonesty). When the hotel's hot water failed three days into our stay, she was worse than useless, and made no effort to assist guests or make any arrangements for compensation. In addition, she demanded a 50-Euro payment when we arrived, a payment noted nowhere on any RCI paperwork for our reservation, or on the Creta Suites listing at RCI.

In short, it was a decent place to stay if you know what to expect from a timeshare, but don't trust the RCI listings, and be prepared to be your own concierge. You won't get much help from the daytime staff.