Dh's sister used to live in kureelpa and it was under 10 minutes to get to her place from ours - we lived in nambour heights so wasn't in the centre of town or anything though.

As for beaches - I'm not really an expert, I lived in caloundra for 8 years so my preference would always be for that area, but coolum is lovely, most of my workmates lived there when I worked up that way. Dh worked in maroochydore and I know his boss lived around that area and was a big surfer dude. I had one girl I worked with who lived at mooloolaba and she was really into beach stuff and she loved where she lived.

Really any beach is beautiful on the sunshine coast - its a beautiful spot in the world to live, just a bit built up now for me and dh.