Recently many various research groups have devoted a huge effort to develop a realistic classical force field for ions in water. The parametrization techniques used could be gathered into two classes: (i) fit of the ab initio potential energy surface for clusters at gas phase, and (ii) fit of experimental properties. For both classes of force fields, a high level of accuracy has been achieved, which has led to important improvements in the modeling of ion–water systems. In this paper a new, complementary, approach is proposed to overcome the limitations and to get a deeper insight into the atomistic description of ion–water interactions. We use the recently developed force matching method to parametrize classical halide–water force fields for three different water models. Here we discuss both methodological issues and the level of agreement between the results obtained using this method to Car–Parrinello simulation results.