Braunlage is the Harz mountains' main winter town, a place of hotels and guesthouses sitting in a high bowl at around five hundred and sixty metres, ringed by spruce forest. Above it rises the Wurmberg, at 971 metres the highest summit in Lower Saxony, with a cable car, a ski area and, on a clear day, a good view of the Brocken, the Harz's bald and brooding top, which sits across the old inner-German border in Saxony-Anhalt. The Brocken is where Goethe sent Faust and his witches to dance on Walpurgis Night, and the whole region leans happily into the witch theme.
The town has been a mining and forestry place, then a spa and holiday resort, and it still feels like a place built for visitors, with a long main street of cafés, bakeries and shops selling Harz sausage, honey and wooden carvings. It is a comfortable place for a long lunch or an overnight, especially if the weather turns, which it often does at this height. Fog, drizzle and sudden snow flurries can arrive in any month except high summer, and the temperature can be ten degrees lower than down in the valley.
Riding here is a different business from the plains to the north. The roads climb through dense spruce, with wide, flowing corners and long straights on the plateau, and the surface is generally good, though frost heaves appear after winter. The Harz roads are popular with riders and drivers alike, so on a dry summer weekend expect crowds, plus the occasional speed check. The B4 and B27 meet here, and the roads toward Torfhaus and Sankt Andreasberg are among the best in the region. A lot of the forest around has suffered from bark beetle in recent years, and the bare grey trunks on some slopes are a sobering sight.
Braunlage has just over five thousand people, but it has fuel, shops and a good choice of restaurants, so it is a sound base. Carry warm layers even in summer, and check the weather before taking the higher roads. The best times are early autumn, with clear light and quiet roads, and midweek in June.