Adapting to uncertain climate change entails a diversity of decisions in diverse situations including local-level agricultural production, ecosystem management, large-scale infrastructure investment or national-level adaptation policy development. A range of decision analytical frameworks are available and have been applied to these situations for identifying preferable adaptations options. Frameworks include “classical” ones such as multi-criteria, cost-benefit or cost effectiveness as well as new developments such as adaptive management, robust decision making or adaptation pathways. A critical point in any effort to manage climate change risks is the choice of an appropriate decision making framework as well as well as the deployment of climate information that is aligned to the framework and the underlying adaptation situation. Not all frameworks are applicable to all types of adaptation situations and there is often a gap between available climate information and the information needs of standard decision-making frameworks (e.g. benefit-cost analysis). Against this background, I first discuss different types of adaptation decision situation that arise under climate change and present criteria for choosing a framework appropriate in a give case. Criteria include decision horizon, availability of models for projecting residual impacts, relative costs of options, current risks due to climate variability and flexibility of options. Next, I zoom in and discuss specific gaps and challenges that arise in the context of coastal adaptation decision making. These include the way uncertainty is treated in the IPCC climate and sea-level rise scenarios, which differs from the treatment of uncertainty in risk management. I illustrate these issues with the help of adaptation case studies taken from the literature.