Getting a route from Google maps into a Garmin device….

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Wapps, previously every time I tried this my garmin would recalculate and take me the fastest route despite my waypoints - if this described method gets round this issue then that’s great and thank you for sharing


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Thank Jazbee.

I chopped the video out of this post and thread: https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/571439-Google-maps-to-Zumo-XT?p=6196123#post6196123 to make a sticky out of it, guessing that it would help others.


As the video sort of hints at, the conversion from a track into a route is not always perfect. Discrepancies can occur, particularly when a Google route / track follows roads that Garmin’s own software mapping does not recognise or where the preference settings are wildly out of step. This explains the bod’s emphasis on checking everything. Ten seconds spent at home can prevent minutes or more frustration away from home. Similarly, the suggestion to change the track’s colour also helps, when spotting any discrepancies.

Thanks for sharing Richard. V useful.

Things seemed to be different on my Mac, maybe because I have never used Google Maps to create a route. Anyway, this video from the same bod helped me out a bit:

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One thing I learned is its best to have your Garmin device plugged in to your PC/Laptop when messing around in Basecamp... one reason is the map is much more detailed as its using your device mapping.

The other is (if not connected) when you try to create a Route from your Track (KML file you imported into Basecamp), it produces a straight line - as the crow flies line - which is obviously useless..... I couldn't figure this out at first but there was a note from the guy in the YouTube comments about that glitch and to have the device connected.

I had already worked out not to check the KML box when saving the trip on Google Maps.... it then saves it as a KMX file which imports fine and both Track and Route are exact. Either way, pretty please to get it all working now with a combination of YouTube stuff by Joseph Byrne and basically fannying about with it

Thank you, Jazbee.

In between watching a mind boggling programme on the BBC about neutrinos, I have mucked about with a route between Calais and Chimay, created in Google Maps on my Mac and imported it into BaseCamp, again on my Mac. The track imported perfectly into BaseCamp, including the one via point I had created in the Google Map version. I then asked BaseCamp to convert the track into a route, which again it did perfectly but (maybe not surprisingly) it did not bring the via point across with it. Had this been a point I had wanted to be alerted to, I would have missed it whilst hooning along. There again, it would be easy to add it into the route version manually.

As I have imported the detailed Garmin maps into BaseCamp on my Mac, I don’t have to connect my Garmin device.

I need to do some more work on understanding lots of the finer points of route creation in Google Maps. Where I think it might be quite useful is:

A. I could use Google’s powerful search engine to find places.

B. It will probably make it easier to share a route with bods who don’t use a regular GPS device but do use their phones. What I am thinking about here is when six or seven cars all drive across country from Calais to Spa, which I create our route for. At least now we should all be looking at the same hymn sheet, even is not quite singing the same song.

C. I can easily list and print out the Google Map’s turn-by-turn directions, to give to the chimps in car three of the seven, who do not even know what a phone is but do have a 1990’s map.

As with most things, the Google Map tool is quite simple (I just don’t know my way around it yet) but also very powerful. I think I have only scratched the surface; thank you Jazbee for sparking my interest in it. If I go more into a phone based method of GPS navigation, using the Connected app, it might lead me to more use of Google maps as an alternative on my phone, too.

From the video in post #5 I have taken up the bod’s useful tip of creating a bookmark shortcut of:

www.google.com/maps/d

Which saves a bit of faffing about.

Slowly but surely I am getting the hang of it and enjoying the powerful Google search function to find specific places. I have now created two trial cross-country routes in Google Maps on my Mac, one from the Chunnel at Folkestone to Spa via Chimay and a separate return route from Spa to the UK via Givet. Both seem to look OK and both transfer into BaseCamp without any glitches.

the video in post 5 is worth watching even if you dont wish to convert a google map route to a garmin route, lots of good info in it.

Hi Lee, I thought so, too.

I notice that My Maps files routes quite neatly.

Richard i have used the above method many times in the past, and it does work well but i tend to use mapstogpx now to convert a google route to a gpx as i find it a little quicker and less of a faff,
Most everyone i know likes to use google maps to create a route i think because its what most people find the simplist or at least what they are more use to using. Again it is whatever people feel at home with and the above video tutorial goes a long way in making the conversion from google maps to garmin straight forward.

Thanks, Lee.

I have just had a play around on my iPad, where it seems to work quite well.

Good tip about mapstogogpx.

The automatic synchronisation of My Maps routes across my Mac, iPad and iPhone is quite handy.

There is though a bit of a knack to drawing a route on an iPad. The easiest way I have found so far is:

1. Create a basic A to B, start to finish route.

2. Use an iPencil thing, to drag the route around, using the same method as you’d employ to drag (elastic band) a route around in BaseCamp, so that it follows the roads you want to take, as opposed to the roads the algorithm thinks are best for you.

Now to work out how to get a bespoke My Maps route from my iPad into the Garmin Connected app.