Best place to find shells near Orlando?

[Mas17]

We will be in Orlando next week thru July 4th. My son will be wrestling at the Disney Duals at ESPN WWOS.
Where would a good beach be to find shells, near Orlando? Gulf side? Ocean side? We don't want to drive too far (under 2 hours). I keep hearing about "Honeymoon Island"...has anyone been, is it good to find shells or is there somewhere else.
Also is there a better time to find shells, like in the morning?
Wherever we go, we will probably spend the day.

TIA
Bmas

 

[ilovejack02]

St Petes and further down , which is going to be right at two hours for St. Petes. We had great shelling fun, while there 3 weeks ago. Shells seemed to plentiful all day . We drove up towards Clearwater and not nearly as many shells. St. Petes is gulfside.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Gulf side. Honey Moon Island TONS AND TONS of shells. There are more shells than there is sand on this beach I kid you NOT! This is a nice park to go to. There is a cafe and very nice bathhouses! Plan to spend all day here because it is such a nice area.

You can rent beach chair, umbrella, bikes.

 

[Danibelle]

Honeymoon Island (a little farther than 2 hrs) was recommended to me by some shellers from St. Pete Beach. If you get to that town go to The Shell Store on Corey Ave. The owners have a lot of info that they will share. I visited Madeira Beach and Indian Rocks recently and the shelling was poor to non-existent.

I have not experienced many shells on the Atlantic side other than clams, cockles, mostly broken.

 

[bigmochick]

We went to Honeymoon Island last Father's Day, and yes, the beach is more shells than sand! To the point that is was impossible to go barefooted! Future down there is Sanibel and Captiva, but quite a haul. We made that trip 5 years ago. For the time/gas spent it wasn't any better than Honeymoon, IMHO!