Recreation is frequently an essential issue in many beach management plans. To that end, classifications of beaches could be used in order to define development priorities and management practices. Thus, the selection of appropriate indicators is an ongoing debate as well as the necessity to combine environmental and socio-economic variables. In this paper, we compare three typologies that have been used in the recent formulation of a beach planning program in the South West of France (“Schéma Plans Plages” or “Beach Plan Scheme”). The first classification was engineering-driven and based on environmental and management information. It describes actual management practices and environmental resources. A multiple correspondence analysis and a hierarchical cluster analysis had lead to identify four types of beaches. The second one was an economics-driven approach designed to evaluate the management costs of recreation. It was based on a microeconomic framework and implemented statistical and econometric methods. Several types of costs values and costs functions were provided. Both of these approaches were developed by the authors with original data. The third classification was proposed by a group of experts coming from the administration (local communities, public agencies) aimed at defining regional development strategies. Compared to the previous ones, such a classification mainly reflects the preferences of local politics. Many official documents refer to this classification and new recreational projects must now be defined accordingly. In this last case, four other classes have been proposed. We compare these three approaches and study the possible combinations between them. Following this, we discuss the cost efficiency of different management strategies (including the schemes defined by the local authorities). We finally point out the challenges raised by such a multidisciplinary work and the need for a better integration between science and policy.