I've heard that Destin can be nice, especially if you are straight and white. Bear in mind that many people in the south refer to the Florida panhandle as the "Redneck Riviera."
It might be a few hours of additional driving but my suggestion is you consider going somewhere a bit more sophisticated. I used to live in St. Petersburg and it's a nice, laid back medium sized city. It has a beautiful downtown waterfront, a lively downtown, good restaurants, and nearby arts district. A lot of the landscaping is tropical. The Old Northeast neighborhood has miles of gorgeous bungalows. One very cool feature of the downtown is the Salvdor Dali museum housing the largest colection of his work. They have guided tours on the hour and the docents are generally very well informed and interesting. If you stay out on St. Pete Beach or Treasure Island, you will be on twenty three miles of the nicest beaches in the U.S.
St. Pete is also reasonably convenient to Sarasota that has the Ringling Art Museum and the Ringling mansion along with another nice arts district. Skip Tampa.
May I add that the sun sets in the west and the beaches of the Florida panhandle face south.
Have fun and be sure to wear sunscreen! Lots of folks from the midwest severely underestimate the intensity of the sun. I also recommend staying out of the sun between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
Dave