India, Sept. 14 -- 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. Also read | Magical night safaris, sunset boat rides, regal thalis: 2 unforgettable days of pure luxury in Mewar's private forest

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!"

It is not a metaphor. The same stone-and-wood bungalow where Tagore stayed, walked, and wrote some of the verses that would win India its...