Garmin route planning tools/techniques?

[directdrive]

Going to spend some time over the next few days playing with some new Garmin maps and getting some routes on my eTrex 20x. Just bought the nice spangly Talkytoaster maps too.

Anybody got any good tools for planning a route on the Garmin?

At the moment, I manually plot tracks on Basecamp, cross-referencing using online OS Maps to find appropriate trails/paths and using Geograph to find photos if I'm in any doubt as to the rideability or condition of particular trails. I am in west Wales, so I like to use forestry trails as well as easier single/doubletrack to end up with routes that are mostly off road.

Basecamp is not the most intuitive or user-friendly software so wondering if anyone has experience of alternative tools for plotting mostly off-road paths?

[belugabob]

Basecamp and Etrex 35touch, both with talkytoaster maps, here.
I don't mind Basecamp, at all.
If however, I'm planning Veloviewer tile bagging trip, then I use the route planner in the web version of Strava, so that I can take advantage of the 'already visited tiles' overlay - then I re-plot them in Basecamp, and transfer to the Etrex

[javatime]

Maybe a bit different - but if I need to get between 2 places on the bike using roads I use https://cycle.travel/

It uses a different method than Google to determine the best route for cycling, and you can drag the points if need be.

Then download the .gpx file in cycle.travel and transfer to Garmin

[Asposium]

Plot route only in ViewRanger
Export GPX
Import GPX to Basecamp
Add points of interest
Transfer to Garmin device

[ledburner]

Easy GPS (windows platform) promised a lot, but unless I'm missing something, I was disappointed.. No auto routing. Just click lots of points, I suppose th ts what you want off road... ..
I am impressed with talkytoaster 50k maps.

[jameso]

I mostly use ridewithgps. Toggle layers there then cross ref to bikehike for OS map needs as it layers with OSM Cycle. Ridewithgps subscription service is good for editing functions - looking at a few routes at a time, editing sections, joining routes etc.

[ScotRoutes]

Mostly Basecamp.

One thing about using any Routes (i.e. relying on device routing) is that you need to have the same map on the device as you've used to plot the route. Even to the same version/release. With Basecamp you can plug your device into your PC and use the maps on the device (if you've not made another copy).

I've played around with some of the others and they're OK as long as you can save the "Route" as a Track.

I also have an IQ App on my Oregon 700 that means I can plot a Track in something like Komoot / Plotaroute / RWGPS etc and it'll sync to my Oregon via my phone.

I agree that Basecamp has a bit of a learning curve but I think that's because it is the best tool and so has the most comprehensive function set. I have a couple of OSM-based maps and the Ordnance Survey available on mine.