How to upload a route to a Garmin?
 

I work in a pretty high end resort and have a guest coming in late October with a special request; He wants my favorite road routes uploaded to his Garmin 800 so he can get turn by turn directions while on the road.

I have a 500, so I can't really practice and figure this out, but can someone tell me how I would create and upload the routes?

If you ride the route, then go into history / activities, you can then save it as a course. You can then use garmin training manager app to get it out, and should be able to send it to him.

I think the above should work, i have one, and although haven't done the above all together, have done the separate steps.

I will not be riding the exact routes I want to send to him, because I ride from home, he will be riding from the hotel. I need to write new routes using some sort of service.

Edge 800 devices can accept either TCX (course) or GPX (route) files. Among others, the websites BikeRouteToaster and RideWithGPS let you draw a route on a map (Google or OSM) and then either save a GPX file to your local drive or download directly to a connected Garmin GPS if your web browser has Garmin's Communicator plug-in installed. You don't need an account to use BikeRouteToaster. RideWithGPS requires a (free) account to create new routes.

Similarly, you can install the GoogleMaps CueSheet bookmarklet in your browser, which lets you generate cue sheets and elevation profiles from a route you draw on Google Maps, as well as download the route to a connected Garmin GPS or save as a GPX file.

Garmin's Basecamp app (free from garmin.com), allows you to import GPX and TCX files, and download them to a connected Garmin GPS. Basecamp can be finicky about the format of the files it's willing to import, even if they're syntactically perfectly valid.

I don't know what's available on Windows, but on Mac you can use the freeware apps LoadMyTracks or HoudahGPS to upload/download routes and tracks from/to a Garmin GPS if you don't want to use Basecamp.

You don't need Garmin's Communicator plug-in.

Create the route on mapping software that can save as a TCX.

When completed, connect the Garmin to your PC and treat it as a "Mass Storage Device" (i.e., like a hard drive)

Locate the Folder "NewFiles".

Drag and drop the TCX file into the "NewFiles" folder. (Multiple files can be done at one time)

Disconnect the Garmin from your PC. (Best to use the tray icon to 'Safely Remove Hardware')

Once disconnected, turn the Garmin device on. It will start converting the files from "NewFiles" into FIT course files.

Once the conversion is complete they should appear under COURSES on your device (and the FIT files should appear in the "Courses" folder on your device)

Sounds great! So the route I make on ridewithgps.com can go on the Garmin 800, and will give my guest turn by turn directions as he rides?

This was very helpful, thanks for posting. I created a route in ridewithgps and then used GPS Babel to send it to my Garmin (I am using a 305) and it worked perfectly!