This study reviews recreational ecosystem services from 2005 to 2020, focusing on the concepts and contents of recreational ecosystem services in China and abroad, organizing research methods, and summarizing research gaps and future perspectives. The results show that the concept of recreational ecosystem services is a general term that can encompass many previous tourism-related concepts, and is applicable to region-wide studies. Existing research on recreational ecosystem services focuses on three dimensions: “Supply: quality and value”, “Demand: recreationist preferences and demand forecasting”, and “Trade-offs: supply and demand, mathematics and interest subjects”. The current research results on “Supply” are abundant and involve multiple approaches, but the exploration of “Demand” and “Trade-offs” is insufficient, lacking a systematic and holistic conceptual and classification system. Therefore, based on the review, this study proposes to expand the connotation of recreational ecosystem services Value from the concept, expand the universality of related research from the object, deepen the formation mechanism from the content, strengthen the value measurement and the use of multi-source data from the method. Furthermore, the paper proposes to translate the theoretical research results into policy management measures and planning design tools in concrete practice, so as to guide sustainable development and promote the benefits of natural ecosystems.