Destin area dive plan?

I am taking my whole family to Florida in June for a week, and would like to know the best place to get lodging to be central to Shore diving, spearfishing, and Oriskany / other wreck trips? there are going to be 7-12 of us. also Dive spot recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Pensacoala? Destin? beach? other?

If you are going to hit the "O" then Pensacola is the place to be. With 7-12 people you are looking for the bigger boats. I would recommend the H2O Below Charter Boat H2O Below     Pensacola Florida

Shore Dives
The best shore dive in Pensacola is Ft. Pickens. There is also the Pensacola Beach Pier Rubble (but right now alot of it is covered). Within a short drive from pensacola there is the Alabama Point seawall and jetty as well as the Whiskey Wreck which are both fun shore dives as well. To the East you can make it to Destin in about 45 minutes and dive the Destin Jetties. For a super kick a$$ shore dive you can drive over to Panama City and dive St Andrews Jetties, which in my opinion is the best shore dive around the area, but it is a 2 1/2 hour drive from P-cola (still doable).

Boat Dives
Oriskany
YDT-14 and 15 (also known as the Navy Boats)
Avocet
Chevron Rig
Pete Tide
Russian Frieghter
There are many others, but this will get you started.

Many on this board dive the shore dives and off shore sites regulary and when you come down in June give a shout out before you come down. If I am off work I would be happy to show you around Ft. Pickens. I know that site like the back of my hand.

To be fair the other larger boat in Pensacola is the Wet Dream operated out of the Scuba Shack Scuba Shack

The rest of the boats are six packs, but most captains will work with each other on the six pack boats and have both boats meet up at a site. We have some super good six pack captains in the area. If you are interested in going that route let me know and I will throw some names your way.

Dived with the H2O Below, great group of folks, nice boat.

Limited diving experience in P-cola, but can say the Pete Tide II is a good site. Plenty of life, as well as resident bull shark.

My opinion is the diving in Pensacola is better than Destin.