Lake Toya Ranch — Local services in Toyako

Absolutely amazing! We had barely any horse riding skills but our guide was super informative, very helpful and very caring. He diligently kept an eye on us and also provided great background information about our horses (Max & Kimchi). We got to stop at this peak point for our Lake Toya view and it was breathtaking.

We also somehow lost our car keys during the trek and the staff were sooo amazing they helped go back through the trek and found it for us.

This is an absolutely phenomenal experience in the winter and is so mesmerising. We did the 40minute trek and without a doubt we would do the 90mins if we were on such a strict time schedule.

The horses are beautiful as well, so we looked after and very loved. They also have this gorgeous standard...

The ranch is run by a small group of friendly locals and though they are not very fluent in English, they're able to manage short conversations. We had no issues with our horse-riding session of about 35 minutes. Even though it was our first time riding horses, the horses were absolutely lovely and very calm and knew what they had to do whilst on the course.

One thing to note is that the location of the ranch requires you to access it by either car or taxi. It's not difficult to get one within the Lake Toya region and if you tell the taxi driver 'Lake Toya Ranch', they will highly likely know where you're referring to since it's a popular place that tourists...

I had a terrible experience with this place. I arrived by taxi (since there’s no way to get here using public transportation), only to be informed that my reservation was canceled due to snow the day before. They never emailed or texted me in advance to let me know, which would have saved me the trip. Instead, they chose to apologize and bow after I arrived, as if that made up for the inconvenience.

To make matters worse, they claimed the refund would be issued instantly, but I still haven’t seen anything on my end. This level of unprofessionalism is unacceptable. Avoid this place—it feels...