Awesome Guide. Great Experience - Obaid was fantastic. He literally went the extra mile(s) for us! Very informative, and we enjoyed our conversations in the car. Unforgettable experience. We were fortunate to have lots of snow. Thanks again Obaid for the great tour and for your generosity.

Great trip! - Great trip! Honey, our driver is very polite and professional. The ride from Tokyo was long, but he made it very comfortable. He let us decide on our itinerary and was very forgiving when we ran late. Seeing the snow monkeys was very special. Would definitely recommend both the attraction and Honey our driver.

Snow Monkeys - Outstanding, safe driver for our trip to Nagano and the Snow Monkey Park. His explanation of the 1.6 km walk through the park to the monkeys was appreciated.

The best tour - It was the best tour of the trip. An absolutely beautiful place. A unique experience that I highly recommend. One of the highlights of the tour was the guide, who was extremely friendly and attentive. During the trip, he offered phone charging cables in the car, pillows for resting, and equipment to walk safely on the snow. He also gave us enough free time to enjoy the park, have lunch, grab a snack, and even recommended a very good restaurant. It was an excellent experience, and I would recommend it without hesitation.

Adventures In The Snowy Mountains - Our guide was Sarfraz and he was terrific. He gave us plenty of information and made sure we were always happy. We had a great day at the monkey park and exploring shrines and walks in the snow. We highly recommend Sarfraz to all!

We had a great time... - We had a great time taking this tour. Our driver Sarfy was very friendly and helpful. The snow monkeys were adorable. We also enjoyed visiting the little town called Obuse on our way back to Tokyo.

Our driver Sarfraz was... - Our driver Sarfraz was very friendly and we really enjoyed our trip to Nagano. I highly recommend this tour.

Excellent sightseeing trip with Bilal - Today we enjoyed our trip very much. We have visited all spots we wanted to see. Bilal was an excellent guide. He adjusted our trip fully to our needs. He was an excellent, very safe driver. He was also very polite and had a lot of patience. We can strongly recommend this trip with Bilal to everyone.

Booked and paid for a local guide and educational experience; ended up with only an expensive taxi. - The tour promised an educational guide who would pick us up to start the tour at 7am. At 9:30 pm the night before departure, our DRIVER arranged with me to pick us up at 9 am rather than 7 am as originally set because he was driving from Tokyo region to Nagano. Although a very pleasant driver, the van had garbage in side pockets, food crumbs in seats, and when we attempted to ask questions, he could only politely respond that he didnt know as he was from Pakistan. Definitely not the local knowledgeable guide advertised. The sample itinerary was unsatisfied. Our kind driver was in NO WAY qualified as a local expert on the Nagano region and there was NO ability to accommodate any additions to our tour as experienced in other reviews. $600 USD for a tour guide such as this was a terrible spend; I have requested a 60% refund which is still too much to pay for a driver especially when we had a car. We were excited to spend the 10+ hr day with a local guide and learn the culture, the community, the way of being Japanese; big disappointment with the outcome of this 7 hr drive to see snow monkeys and the Matsumoto castle. Buyer beware.

Never again will I book with takako tours! $460 wasted. - Do not book this tour if you get takako tours as the provider. We were picked up and the person said his name was Paresh (sp?) he was Pakistani living in Tokyo. He said he had to drive 4 hours to get to our hotel. I felt bad for him, but we paid for this tour. We got in the car and he drove off. We waited for him to give us information about Nagano, but there was silence. We started asking questions. His English was okay and we understood most of what he said. He took us to Matsushiro Castle first, and when he parked, I asked him if he was coming in. He said no, he'd wait in the car. So no tour or guide going into this castle. It was free admission, and we wandered around before returning to the car. We were then driven to the Monkey Park. He parked in a parking lot and told us to walk up the road, take the first right, and keep walking to get to the parking lot for the park. He remained in the car and there was no "guide or tour". At this point, I was utterly disappointed with this "tour." During our drive, we had to ask questions about the area, and he couldn't answer some of them. He also didn't let us know that the monkeys were no longer in the park. He could have offered a different site if he found out the monkeys were gone. We reached the beginning of the park, and there was a sign saying the monkeys went back to the forest. At the park, you need to hike up a path about 1.8 km, and then you get to the real entrance of the park, where you need to hike uphill another .2 km. and pay the entrance fee. Also, there are no restrooms once you leave the park parking lot. Another thing to be careful of is that the listing for this tour says that all the activity fees are included, but when you look at the itinerary, it says the fees are not included. The park visit was supposed to last 3 hours, but since there were no monkeys, we decided not to hike up to the entrance or pay for entry. We returned to the car and the driver said the next stop is Zenkoji Temple--which is right by our hotel. My husband had the itinerary and he said what about the visit Shibu Onsen. The driver said that the tour was actually over since we were supposed to stay 3 hours in the monkey park. Even though it wasn't even noon, and our tour was supposed to be TEN hours, he wanted to take us back. There were five stops on the itinerary and after two stops he wanted to take us back to Zenkoji Temple which would be the last stop. We asked him if there was anywhere we could get lunch and he said no, not really. We asked if Shibu Onsen would have any place to eat and he said he didn't think so. We insisted he drop us off at Shibu Onsen and we walked around the little town. We did find a little restaurant and had cold ramen, which was delicious. After we left Shibu Onsen our driver took us to Zenkoji Temple. He dropped us off and told us we had an hour and to meet him back at the drop-off point. We were told to call him when we got back to the dropoff point. Zenkoji Temple was fascinating, and because he gave us only an hour to visit, we didn't have a chance to see the shopping street. We got picked up at 9:30 am and dropped off at 16:30. This was not a ten hour tour. Oh, and at the end of the tour, our guide became very chatty and said to please give him a good review and mention his name, which changed to Bilal. I thought he said his name was Pareesh or Pavreesh. Our ten-hour tour was actually 7 hours and we visited only three of the five destinations which was listed on the itinerary. And, if we hadn't insisted, we would have only seen two out of the three. I would really like my money back because this tour was so disappointing. I've booked a lot of tours in Japan, and I'm surprised that Viator would use this company, given their poor performance. Remember, cancel your booking if you get takako tours. Also, there are bus tours sold at the Nagano Train stations for the Monkey Park--I'm not sure how much it costs.