McCool Travel Tips from Travel Experts: Jim Kovarik

McCool Travel is excited to present interviews with travel industry giants, super frequent travelers, and adventurous persons.
For the second profile, I am happy to present Jim Kovarik. Jim co-founded and operates Cost2Go and Cost2Drive, fantastic resources for road trip lovers. His application Cost2Drive calculates the cost of driving anywhere in the US based on real time gas prices along your route.  It is the only Internet site that compares the cost of flying with the cost of driving, and has been featured in over 20 major-market newspapers, on TV (including CNBC), and across the blogosphere on sites like CNET and MSNBC.com. In December 2010, he launched Commuting Calculator, a Facebook app to show how much money you would save by using an electric car. I met with Jim last year at a coffee shop near his home in Great Falls, Virginia and he recently took time from his busy schedule to share these thoughts.

Jim Kovarik
Jim Kovarik

Always in my luggage…
glasses and a good book
3 favorite home-away-from-home places…
Block Island (Rhode Island), Provence, France, and Tuscany, Italy
A favorite travel memory is…
Bahamas Club Med Paradise Island—my son snorkeled the whole vacation.  It was a week before the resort was closed down to make room for Atlantis.
3 favorite travel brands…
W Hotels, Marriott, and Avis
3 money-saving travel tactics I use are…
Staying at vacation rentals, using frequently flier miles, and—of course—using Cost2Drive.com to find the cheapest gas stations
3 ways that I have fun while traveling are…
turning off email, jogging in a new city, eating out
8 word (or less) travel mantra…
Don’t overplan, leave room for exploration.
My favorite non-travel website…
TechCrunch
Favorite Road Trips
Overseas highway from Miami to Key West and Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Forest.
Learn more about Jim Kovarik on LinkedIn. He shares thoughts on Twitter (@CosttoDrive) and his blog (Cost2Go).
Thank you, Jim and many more memorable road trip adventures!

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