Also read | Magical night safaris, sunset boat rides, regal thalis: 2 unforgettable days of pure luxury in Mewar’s private forest Forget the crowded mall road and packed lakeside hotels of Nainital . If you want history with your mountain holiday, the hills of Kumaon have a secret worth booking.
The same stone-and-wood bungalow where Tagore stayed, walked, and wrote some of the verses that would win India its first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 is a boutique homestay. Located about 35 km from Nainital, Ramgarh has long been called the fruit bowl of Kumaon. The property is a cluster of six heritage cottages, but the soul of it is The Writers’ Bungalow, built in 1860.
It is not a metaphor. In Tagore’s time, it was pure isolation — pine forests, apple orchards, and snow peaks. That quiet is exactly what Neemrana has tried to preserve. Unlike restored heritage hotels, Neemrana has kept the bones intact — whitewashed brick, exposed beams, slate floors, wooden rafters, bay windows — and layered it with thoughtful design. The website gives a detailed look at The Writers’ Bungalow’s two signature rooms. The Bird suite is tranquillity by design. Crisp white-painted brick walls create a rustic, textured backdrop. The ceiling has white-painted exposed beams with a simple fan, keeping the 19th-century volume intact. At the centre is a large wooden bed, dressed in yellow and green linen. What gives the room its drama is colour. Deep purple curtains frame the tall windows and glass doors, cutting a rich contrast against the white walls and the intense green outside. Attached is a separate dining nook under a sloped, whitewashed wooden ceiling with exposed rafters. Dark flooring grounds the space, with a traditional wooden dining table, a vintage dark-wood cabinet. If Bird suite is meditative, the Butterfly room is joyful. It keeps the same heritage shell — white brick walls, wooden floors — but plays with a more eclectic, slightly bohemian palette. The room centres on a metal-frame four-poster bed facing the fireplace, its headboard detailed with delicate motifs. The real charm is the bay window with built-in wooden benches — a perfect reading nook. The curtains feature a dense floral pattern in reds, ochres and yellows, layered with solid green drapes; combined with vintage side tables, and lamps, it feels warm, lived-in, and very Kumaoni-colonial. Together, the two suites show how heritage preservation does not have to mean museum-like freezing of space. At The Writers’ Bungalow, you are not just booking a room with a mountain view. Note to readers: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them. This article is for informational purposes only.
Neemrana’s own description says it best: “The sun rises over the high ranges and enters the Bird suite from its bay window. You are staying in a place where one of the world’s greatest poems was shaped by the light, the silence, and the same sunrise that still enters through that bay window today.
On September 10, Neemrana Hotels shared an Instagram post that would stop every bibliophile mid-scroll: “Wake up in the 19th-century Writers’ Bungalow at Ramgarh, where Rabindranath Tagore stayed in the early 1900s while writing Gitanjali, the work that got him the Nobel Prize in Literature!”
