Most but not all the time I agree with Lonely Planet. LP seems to rip on this castle for being a full-on replica, rebuilt, not original, tourist trap. Sure it's some of that, but what castle hasn't had to have a bit of remodeling over the years. I look at it this way, it's the closest thing to a real, complete castle I've ever seen. I saw a cool one near Hamburg Germany, but it was pretty busted up, and hard to imagine what it was like in it's prime. I saw a cool one in Latvia, and there was some restoration going on, but it hadn't been going on long, it had a long way to go, there were only a couple of people working on it, and the budget seemed small. Estonia has a cool one on Toompea, but it isn't as complete as the castle at Carcassonne.