The weekend before last we visited St. Pete and drove along the coast up to Clearwater.
St. Pete was white sand made up mostly of shells....we then stopped at John's Pass Village and took a break on the boardwalk and continued on to Clearwater .
Clearwater looked nice but it was cold,windy and raining by the time we reached there so we didn't spend much time on the beach.
Expect about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs each way to/from Orlando just to the gulf coast...It made a nice day trip for us.
Hope that helps...