SPORTS & ADVENTURE

Fly-Fishing and Bird Shooting
Mollie Fitzgerald, Frontiers International Travel, Wexford, Pennsylvania
Recommended Generalist
Fitzgerald, who last year sent more than 5,700 travelers on sporting trips, will take into account all manner of minutiae so that you don't have to—from the most productive moon phase for Caribbean flats fishing to the proper salmon flies for Alaska or Iceland. Her strong relationships with the best sporting lodges and hotels ensure the right accommodations match for each client (800-245-1950; mollie@frontierstravel.com).

Golf
Gordon Dalgleish, PerryGolf, Wilmington, North Carolina
Native Scotsman Dalgleish, himself a three-handicap player and a former director of the American Junior Golf Association, specializes in high-end golf trips worldwide—which he can tailor to a couple as easily as to a group of ten. With an office in Scotland, he has access to coveted tee times at the more popular courses in the British Isles, such as the Old Course at St. Andrews (800-344-5257, ext. 222; gordon.dalgleish@perrygolf.com).

Eleanor Nelson, Travel House Inc., Barrington, Illinois
Because she plays at least 30 different courses a year, Nelson knows most popular courses' layouts and quirks—and which destinations will stretch your golf dollar farthest. She can schedule a round with a teaching pro or a former professional player, and organizes group trips to events like the Masters, the Ryder Cup, and the British Open (847-381-0600; eleanor@travelhouseinc.com).

River Rafting
Mindy Gleason, O.A.R.S., Angels Camp, California
Gleason has spent the past 20 years running rapids of every difficulty up to Class V and has personally rafted 24 of the more than 35 rivers and coastlines used on O.A.R.S. trips, including waterways that the company has exclusive access to in Grand Teton National Park, British Columbia, and Fiji. She'll customize an adventure to your needs, whether that means sleeping in the wilderness or at a top eco-lodge (800-346-6277, ext. 730; mindyg@oars.com).

Running
Thom Gilligan, Marathon Tours & Travel, Boston
For some people, running the New York City Marathon is the fulfillment of a dream. For others, it's just the beginning—and for that group there's Gilligan, a longtime marathoner (he won the Reykjavík half-marathon in 1983) who is the exclusive agent for Americans wanting to race in the London Marathon. He even created the Antarctica Marathon, the continent's only sporting event (617-242-7845; info@marathontours.com).

Scuba Diving
Meg Austin, The Travel Society, Denver
Recommended Generalist
A sports enthusiast who has logged more than 250 dives in the past decade, Austin can get her divers into the Turks and Caicos's pristine coral canyons when nobody else is there, or under the Antarctic ice to dive with leopard seals. Her relationships with hotels, resorts, villas, and boats near her favorite dive destinations enable her to score the perfect accommodations, too (303-932-0434; meg@meg2book.com).