I recently got interested in web development coming from kernel based applications. I am curious to what the best development environment and language that one can use to build a nice looking website. I have a distant familiarity with PHP, CSS and the like but I am comfortable with HTML.
To be perfectly frank: it doesn't really matter.
As long as it produces useful HTML, CSS, and perhaps JavaScript, you can have a beautiful website (and you can also produce bad websites!). The development environment is purely a matter of taste for the programmers.
As long as you are disciplined and attack the project with a plan, know a good designer or two, and have the will power to see it through till the end, you'll be successful.