2 nights Nagano city or Yamanouchi?

We are planning to stay 2 nights in early April and would like to know the most beautiful area to stay, would it be Nagano city or Yamanouchi in a ryokan near the Monkey Park?

Does the villages near Monkey Park have restaurants for dinner and what is there to see and do other than the Monkey Park?

We are active seniors and like beautiful old towns and scenery but not sure where to stay for these 2 nights. We also like the idea of visiting Matsumoto, is it worth visiting this area?

Thank you

I recommend to stay at a ryokan in Yamanouchi (Yudanaka/Shibu Onsen). There are some very nice hotels and ryokan, for example the Kanaguya:
http://www.kanaguya.com/english.html

Most lodgings include dinner, which I recommend to enjoy; therefore the amount of restaurants is limited. In case you don't want to sleep ona furon on tatami, note that there are also many lodgings with Western beds.

Personally I am not a fan of staying two nights at the same ryokan. I would probably stay one night in Yamanouchi and one night in Nagano, taking advantage of the opportunity of an early-morning visit to Zenkoji.

If you are adventerous, there are also some temple lodgings in Nagano, while the hotels in the city are not very outstanding:
https://www.snowmonkeyresorts.com/activities/stay-at-a-traditional-shu...

Matsumoto Castle is Japan's second most spectacular in my opinion (after Himeji). So, defeinitely worth a visit if you like castles.

Thank you all for your thoughts.

Just out of interest what about 1 night Yamanouchi and 1 night Matsumoto? I believe both town are lovely!

Thank you again its so nice to have people that have been to these places and share their thoughts.

We visited Shibu onsen a few years ago, a lovely small onsen town. If you can drive to the Shibu onsen parking lot, the walking trail to the monkey park is a lot shorter than from the Yudanaka Monkey park bus stop.

Staying near the monkey park for a night or even two is entirely doable, but yes, you would want a package that includes breakfast an dinner. Personally I have a different location in Nagano I like to visit, and for guests that just want western style beds, stay in Nagano city.
Matsumoto has a number of onsen areas and one particular ryokan I use is pretty outstanding (but in holiday periods Tama no Yu can be very expensive). In the city the range of hotels get a bit limited, but there is one that get up to 4* that I use.

I stayed in Shibu onsen some years ago and surprisingly for an onsen town it did actually have some dinner options. Had my best Karaage in an Izakaya there.
But ryokan with dinner is also fine

I would think 1 night is enough. You have the monkeys and onsen tour through Shibu onsen. If you really stay 2 days you could try Sora terrace. But might still be a ski place in April.
I visited last year by bike:
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2023/11/d2-nozawa-onsen-to-ryuo...

An other nice place closeby is Obuse. Specially the Hokusai museum.
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2022/09/sw-d7-obuse-to-nagano.h...

Could anyone recommend a very nice Ryokan onsen in either Matsumoto or Nagano area please. We were going to stay 2 nights Shibu but now thinking of 1 night then somewhere else that is a beautiful area.
Thank you

I mentioned Tama no Yu for Matsumoto - they have some rooms with western beds and more traditional Japanese rooms. They have public baths on the ground floor and some private ones on the top floor that you can reserve. Along with the great food, they also have an evening concert/music (at least on the occasions I have stayed there.)
In the Nagano area I like heading to Kamiyamada/Togura as a small onsen area. Kamesei Ryokan is foreigner friendly and while over 100 years old, they have some basic rooms, recent rennovations mean they have some more upscale options as well. While a bit off the beaten track for most tourists, the town is a popular destination.

a very nice Ryokan onsen in Nagano
Seni Onsen Iwanoyu