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Might be better in winter, but in spring only thing to see was monkey park, and that only takes a few hours ( mostly travel time) as it isn’t very big. I was of impression it was a whole mountain, but it is just one small area you see the monkeys from. I’d suggest staying in nagano which was nice, and coming to Yamanouchi for a morning.

While Yamanouchi is known for its proximity to snow monkeys, it wasn't what stood out to me about the area. The snow monkeys just have too many tourists to be truly enjoyable. Yamanouchi has beautiful mountain views, charming winding streets with quirky decorations, and onsen hopping among different ryokans is something to look forward to. If you look behind the main street, you'll see many stairways leading to many shrines. We had dinner at a sushi restaurant ran by an elderly couple, on traditional tatami floors. It felt like eating at someone's house, and they absolutely stuffed us with delicious sushi. Two nights would probably be the best to fully wind down.

Amazing amount of terrain in the ski fields. Need to have better maps (in English) available for the runs. A (live) board showing which lifts and runs are open would be great, prior to entering the areas. The snow was amazing!!!! Restaurants were good however the area appeared to be directed at locals (Japanese) rather than tourists. We had to do a lot of work to find somewhere to eat. It would be great to have some public onsens available in the area.

Our stay at a ryokan just couple miles from Snow Monkey Park was the absolute highlight of a trip filled with highlights. Specifically we stayed at Onyado Hishiya Torazo, and loved everything about it - the room, the food, the staff, and the oh so relaxing onsen! We made the mistake of only booking one night and the short turn around combined with outside temps down in the low 20’s (F) meant we never did try any of the public onsen. Trust me - two days here is the minimum! Snow Monkey Park ended up being another highlight (and between my wife and I, we have about 1,000 pictures to prove it!). Before going we were concerned that it might seem contrived at best and a bad situation for the monkeys at worst. But they were absolutely there of their own free will and happily making use of the large onsen on a cold winter’s day. Get there early - we got there about an hour after opening and wished we’d been an hour earlier. It started to fill up about 20 minutes after we got there. Here’s the weird thing, and the only downside - and I don’t quite know how to explain it. The town was basically closed! And we were there Jan 26-27, a decent snow had fallen a couple days earlier and a light snow fell the morning of the 27th. I thought this would be big tourist season, but we barely saw another sole in town. And those few we did see were almost all tourists out taking pictures in their yukata. This made for a very quiet morning, which was great. But we had planned to pick up our luggage at the ryokan after visiting the monkey park and meander through town stopping to eat, drink, or shop as we made our way to the train station. But nothing was open so we caught an earlier train and ate in Nagano while waiting for our Shinkansen.

The Ryokan Biyunoyado was just fabulous. They have shuttle bus to and from station. also to the snow monkeys.We were late and they returned to station to collect us. Onsens were great. The food was amazing and plenty of it. Japanese style room was very comfortable and beds made up when we were at dinner. Definitely stay here when you come to see the snow monkeys. it’s the best.

Its a great spot for visiting the snow monkeys and a quick snow board at Ryuoo Ski Resort. A walk through the older Shibu Onsen town is also fun for people who like that. We went to three different restaurants in the town and they were all good. The negatives were that the roads and paths were slippery with ice, so bring appropriate footware if visiting in winter (although your hotel might have some). Almost all places were cash only.