A Relaxing Day for Furano, Biei Blue Pond& Local Curry Lunch in Hokkaido!

We were happy with the guides and the organization of the tour. On Viator The tour was advertised as a relaxed day seeing very beautiful spots in Hokkaido Starting from Sapporo For a duration of 13 hours. According to the release time information, we thought that there will be enough time at each spot, even if there are some more pick up locations in Sapporo town. The truth was that the tour has started with 2 Pick up locations in Sapporo Mostly on time. We were descending at the very last stop at the end of the day and we had not spent close to 11 hours on the tour, and the traffic on the way back was not as good as you can argue to Calculate more hours for bad traffic (which we had). This could have been a five star review but indeed There was just two much Pressure on the time schedule at each visited location and at two locations it was hardly possible to enjoy the main attractions at these spots because of the strict times schedule. By the end of the day, we had the impression that we had too much time left so we have spent 30 minutes at the roadway stop for shopping and toilet break, which was not necessary at all (1 Hour away from Sapporo), It seemed that everyone on board would have enjoyed it more if we could’ve spent at each location reasonable bit of more time and we had the impression that was to according to the given information on Viator.

I am glad I took this tour because otherwise I would have needed a rented car. So, that was a big plus. But that was the only good part. I truly felt sorry for the Japanese guide who was struggling to show us an English sentence on his phone for a 15-minute description in Japanese to the Japanese tourists. The whole idea of paying big bugs for a tour is to not have to do research about the places that we go to ahead of time and be able to have a conversation with the guide. This was pathetically missing! Why cannot TripAdvisor or Viator who advertise big for these tours pay a little more to find a person who can put an English sentence together? I know Japan has many young people who look for such jobs. In that sense, I found this trip to be a total disappointment. These companies earn big at English speakers' disadvantage. I find it terrible. I would not pay for such shoddy jobs anymore with TripAdvisor or Viator. I find it unethical.

The day trip was very fun, all the sites were great, the provided lunch was nice, and the itinerary is as described, but there were some details that were wrong. First, the guide only spoke Japanese and did not speak English even though the description said English speaking guide; it was not a huge deal because the guide didn't need to provide much background on the sites, could translate basic info in Google translate, and wrote down times for when we had to be back in the bus. Secondly, the day trip lasted more like 10 hours rather than 13 hours.

Very tight schedule as expected but covered all point of interests that I wanted to see in the Furano area. Enough time to explore and take beautiful photos at each location. A combined Japanese, English and Chinese tour. Not a true guided tour. The Japanese guide talked a lot. The English guide served as a translator mostly about the bus schedule. The bus was comfortable, clean with good AC. The lunch was simple and delicious. A more efficient way than train rides to visit Furano if you wan to see everything but short on time.

Tight schedule as expected but enough time to explore. It was a combined English, Japanese and Chinese tour. Wish I knew what the Japanese guide was saying. He talked quite a bit and made Japanese group laughed. The English guide served as a translator mostly for the bus schedule. It is not a true guided tour but I knew before I booked it. Nice, clean and comfortable bus with good AC. The tour covered all major point of interests in the area that I wanted to visit. A much more efficient way to visit than taking the trains and local buses. The cheese factory stop was not necessary for me. Couldn’t not relate to the story of the trees along the patch work road but it was a nice drive. Overall a nice sightseeing tour with very friendly staff.

Friendly tour guides and generally had enough time to enjoy each spot! Lunch was delicious and had a nice experience

Great daily excursion from Sapporo. There were quite a few places to see so some of the stops were a bit short, but all in all I enjoyed the trip. Please note that this is mostly a Japanese language tour. The guide speaks some English and will use some translation software to make sure English speakers understand where they are and what the departure times are, but there is no full explanation of any of the sights in English. If you speak a bit of Japanese though, you will get the gist of it and most of the sights can be enjoyed perfectly without any additional context since most of them are scenery, natural landscapes etc. I'd still recommend the tour.

Booked the tour with English tour guide but in fact was arranged in a bus of Japanese visitors and the tour guide spoke Japanese all the time, he could not speak any English so we, a group of 8, could not understand what he said all the time. The tour even included unscheduled spot named cheese maker and pizza shop right after lunch with nothing to see. The curry rice lunch was a bit cold when we arrived. So disappointed with the price we paid $90 per person (2 adults 2 children).

The views were indeed amazing. Farm Tomita is a must. We had so much ice cream!. My take: the melon soft serve was better than the lavender. Don't miss out on the cheese factory! Ningle Terrace was quaint and cute. There was one guide - and he spoke Japanese. The other one was NOT a guide. She was a translator for Chinese and English. So we really didn't know what was going on as she would just tell us when to get off the bus, where we were, and what time to return. I was quite envious of the Japanese speakers as the GUIDE had a long explanation on history of Sapporo (which I got from context clues) and all the areas we went to. Lunch was okay. Is the tour value for money? Yes it is. Did I wish it was better, yes I did.

Trip was very organized and structured well. A lot of stops packed in, so be ready to move swiftly. There were two different tour guides with good information. The English speaking parts were sufficient for understanding the point.