Is there or can anyone recommend any software that will allow me to totally bypass Garmin Connect?
I only really need to be able to load up routes and then save them on my Garmin as a course so I can follow them later.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/uploading-gpx-file-to-garmin-idiots-guide-please

Anywhere you can design GPX routes, basically.

If you want to design (and especially edit) routes then RideWithGPS is by far my favourite. (Although I use Strava for actually logging my rides).

Is there anything wrong with connect?

Thanks, I think that will sort my problem.
As far as Garmin connect goes I find it incredibly slow and often am unable to send courses to my device and told to try again later.

bikeroutetoaster.com for road routes. Transfer to Garmin directly or download a TCX / GPX file and transfer yourself.

What Garmin do you have? One of the updates for the Edge500 completely messed up courses. You can end up with them randomly disappearing for long spells, just when you need them. This occurs even if you do use Garmin Connect. There is no Garmin fix for this.

There is apparently a work around using gpsies.com that spaces the points out evenly on the route and this is supposed to fix it.
I keep meaning to try it, as last time I followed a course on my Edge 500 on new roads, the route kept disappering just when I needed it and I gave up.
I think it’s only the 500 that’s affected with this.

iwijohn – Member

Is there anything wrong with connect?

the website is often ‘down’ – often at the weekend, when i’m trying to use it.

it’s all just very crashy and un-reliable.

the website keeps taking me to car sat-nav pages, with no obvious way to get back, without logging out+in.

mostly i use mapmyride, occasionally going back to connect, assuming they’ll have fixed some of the bugs, it only seems to get worse.

oh, and ‘streetview’ doesn’t work/isn’t an option – i use that all the time on mapmyride.

the website is often ‘down’ – often at the weekend, when i’m trying to use it.

it’s all just very crashy and un-reliable.

It’s **** horrendous. I’m using the classic version for my Edge’s and Watch, and the phone for syncing my vivofit. It would seem that Garmin are trying to restrict 3rd party apps playing nicely with the API and this is part of their strategy

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/06/counterpoint-garmin-sync-api.html

I just copy the files onto mine and it converts them