How to follow alltrails routes on your garmin
WHY?
We love using courses on our Garmin watches when we hike them because:
Saves Battery: navigating for a long hike using your phone can drain the battery quickly and become a safety issue.
GPS Accuracy: The Garmin doesn’t require cell service to provide GPS coordinates
Course Correction and Time to Finish: Garmin will actively adjust your estimated finish time based on your pacing, and beep/vibrate at you when you’ve deviated from the course
Did you know you can sync new courses directly from alltrails? Here’s how to send a course to your watch. 👉
What do you need?
Save 30% off a yearly subscription with a discount from our friends at Back of the Pack
A Compatible Garmin:
All forerunner 165 level and above
All Fenix and specialty bike/golf/diving watches
most lifestyle watches are excluded from this list
You can view this list from Garmin to see if your watch is compatible!
Step 1: connect Alltrails with your Garmin
Via the iPhone or Android Alltrails app:
Tap 'Profile' on the bottom navigation bar.
Tap the Settings gear icon at the top right corner.
Tap 'Garmin' and then tap 'Connect'.
Enter your Garmin credentials.
Toggle to select which Garmin integration types you'd like to enable.
Tap 'Save' and authorize AllTrails
Step 2: Find your trail
Via the iPhone or Android Alltrails app:
AllTrails is our go-to app for finding trails — no matter where your adventures take you! You can search by activity, difficulty, length, elevation gain, route type, trail traffic, doggos allowed, and more!
Ex: I want to find an out-and-back that's 8–12 miles within 25 miles of home that has at least 2,000' of elevation gain. Bonus points: use the ‘features’ search to find one with wildflowers!
Pro tip: Are you looking for something
runnable? Filter by “easy” or
“moderate”.
Step 3A (Desktop): SEND YOUR trail TO GARMIN
➡️ On the website scroll down to and click download the route
➡️ then select Send to Garmin
*Note this is as of Feb 2025, menu may change
Step 3A (Mobile): SEND YOUR trail TO GARMIN
➡️ Open Alltrails in an incognito tab (opening in a regular tab will try and force the app to open, this cannot be done via the app)
➡️ Click Download
➡️ Select Send to Garmin
*Note this is as of Feb 2025, menu may change
Step 4: sync your Garmin
Did you find this helpful? Follow us on Instagram or check out our resource section for free guides!
➡️ Open Garmin Connect and tap the sync button to ensure the route is sent to your watch
This is especially helpful to do ahead of time when you have cell service before the trailhead.
*Note this is as of Feb 2025, menu may change
Step 5: start your course!
➡️ On your watch, open up an activity to track (hiking, trail running, running etc)
➡️ Press the up/menu button
➡️ Select Navigation > Courses.
➡️ Select Courses.
➡️ Select you chosen course and select Do Course.
➡️ Navigation information appears.
➡️ Select START to begin navigation
*Based on Forerunner & Fenix Models, check your individual Garmin user manual if button slightly differ
