Good news for badge collectors: Garmin has re-enabled the option to change your country in your profile settings. This means you can now farm international event badges – completely without Garmin Connect+.

Background: Earlier in 2026, Garmin removed this option and locked international badges behind Connect+. We covered that here: Garmin Global Badges – Why You Can't Get Them Without Connect+

The Problem: International Badges Are Country-Locked

Many Garmin badges are tied to a specific country. Events like the Songkran Festival in Thailand, King's Day in the Netherlands, or Golden Week in Japan are only available to users that Garmin associates with the respective country.

Until now, there were only two ways to get these badges:

• Actually living in the country
• Having an active Garmin Connect+ subscription

Now there's a third option: simply change your country directly in your Garmin profile.

The Fix: Change Your Country in the Garmin Profile

Garmin has re-enabled the country selection at the following URL:

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/account/profile/myaccount

You can change your country of residence there directly – giving you access to international event badges.

Step by Step

1. Open your Garmin profile page: garmin.com/en-US/account/profile/myaccount
2. Log in with your Garmin account if prompted
3. Scroll to the Personal Information or Address section
4. Change your Country to the desired target country (e.g. Thailand, Netherlands, Japan)
5. Save your changes
6. Open Garmin Connect – the corresponding event badges should now be available

After the event, you can simply change your country back.

Which Badges Are Available in April?

In April 2026, there are several international event badges you can unlock this way:

• Songkran Festival 2026 (April 13–15) – Country: Thailand – record any activity during this period
• King's Day 2026 (April 27) – Country: Netherlands – record any activity on April 27
• Golden Week 2026 (April 29 – May 5) – Country: Japan – record any activity during this period

For a full overview of all April badges, check out our article: All Garmin Badges April 2026

Important Note

This feature was available in the past, was temporarily disabled, and is now accessible again. It's unclear how long Garmin will keep it this way – so take advantage of it sooner rather than later.