Ramgarh, on foot
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Day one. You barely need the car.
Nine places within four kilometres of the gate, and almost nobody knows they are here.
Most guests arrive believing Ramgarh is only a base for Nainital. It is, but the first day is better spent not driving anywhere. Everything below sits inside four kilometres, several are walkable, and one of them is where a Nobel Prize was partly written. Every distance below is the road distance from our gate, not from the previous stop.
On foot from the gate
Tagore Top trek start
The trail head sits above Malla Ramgarh market, beside the KMVN property. A paved ramp climbs gently through forest before the last steep stretch. Ask reception which of the two approaches suits your legs.
Morning, for the light
Tagore Top
Rabindranath Tagore stayed here in 1903 with his ailing daughter and wrote part of Gitanjali. The cottage is ruins now. Twenty to thirty minutes up on foot, and the Himalayan line opens out at the top.
Late morning, weekdays
Mahadevi Varma Museum
Also called Meera Kutir. Mahadevi Verma, one of the great Hindi poets, lived and wrote here, and the house is kept as a museum and library. There is no board from the road and it sits twenty feet above it, so watch your map.
Sunday only
Writers' Cottage
A short walk on from the museum in Malla Ramgarh. Open one day a week, so most guests will only see it from outside. Worth the two minutes if you are passing.
Any time in the day
Madhuban, Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Thirty acres at five thousand feet, terraced with plum, pear, peach and apricot, the same fruit that grows on our property. A meditation retreat rather than a tourist site, so walk quietly.
First light, for birds
Patel Nature Trails
A ridge trail with the valley open on one side and a stream running below. Rated 4.9 by everyone who has bothered to review it. Birdsong at dawn is the reason to be out early.
Any time
Mahakal Temple, Talla Ramgarh
A small working Shiva temple used by the village rather than by visitors. Five reviews, all from people who found it by accident. Go quietly and briefly.
Sunrise, or a clear afternoon
Gagar Mahadev
Seven thousand feet, on the Bhowali to Mukteshwar road above Ramgarh. The rare spot where the Himalaya sit on one side and the flat plains on the other. Nandaghunti, Trishul, Nanda Devi and Panchachuli on a clear morning.
Late afternoon
Gargeshwar Mahadev
The original Gargeshwar temple, above the roadside one most people stop at. Fifteen minutes uphill from Gagar and invisible until you are nearly there. Gagar is named after the sage Garg, who meditated on this spot.
Every drawing here is waiting for your photograph.
We have illustrated these places rather than borrowing pictures that are not ours. If you photograph one of them, send it to us. If we use it, your name goes underneath it and stays there. Each stop above has its own Send your photo button, which opens WhatsApp with the place already named so we know what we are looking at.