The whales were teasing me. Messing with my mind. Actually, they were driving me nuts.

From our villa veranda on Maui’s northwest Kapalua, you could tell they were out there. Puffs of whale steam a mile out, three miles out, halfway to Molokai.

I’d focus on that puff, then a white cap to my right would snap my head, and at that precise second a big dorsal fin on my left toward Lanai would slam the blue sea and send 100 gallons of white foam 15 feet in the air. I would catch, not the whale slam, but the white water. No matter, I was hooked. Ready to spend another 20 minutes rubbernecking for the next whale’s stunt.

Fortunately, my week on Maui had enough delicious downtime built in that I could relax for hours with no agenda other than to let Maui’s blue waters and Kapalua’s green hills entrance me.

A speaking engagement was the impetus to visit Maui, and I had determined to make a week of our trip. While there, I discovered a new corner, now my favorite corner, of Maui. It is away from the high-rise rush of Kaanapali and the corporate expense account region of Wailea.

Let me start with a couple of overnight options that I strongly recommend putting on your radar screen.

Napili Kai Beach

Napili Kai Beach Resort: located 20 minutes north of Lahaina and 10 minutes beyond Kaanapali’s hotel strip, Napili is that low-rise, low profile, ukulele-strumming Hawaii of the 1950s and ’60s. Napili is located on a gorgeous half-moon bay and its founders instituted a building ordinance that restricted development above two stories. The result is a neighborhood that is a veritable tiki-hut village surrounded by lush tropical green. The word that comes to mind is “unhurried.” Napili is clearly the anti-development of Maui.

Without making a big deal about it, this is the best resort I’ve encountered on Maui for a family vacation. You can start with the two mini-golf 18-hole courses — one just for kids. Don’t bring putters or balls. Napili Kai loans them to guests for free. No nickel-dime-ing here.

The beach sand in the Napili cove is the richest, deepest, softest cinnamon I’ve found anywhere on the island. And the cove itself provides protection from the big waves. Consequently, parents can feel comfortable here with the surf, especially given that other parents keep an eye out for the wave-jumping gang.

Snorkelers love Napili Cove. Along with Black Rock near the Sheraton Maui at Kaanapali, it’s the best snorkeling on the island. Protected from the rollers, we found snorkeling to be almost placid, and the tropical fish apparently love it too. Don’t bother bringing a mask or snorkel. Napili Kai has plenty for everyone at no cost.

As long as we are talking about water, Napili Kai has four pools, well spread out among the 163 guest rooms on the 10-acre resort. Everybody loves warm water, from grandma to tots, so the resort boasts the largest spa hot tub I’ve ever seen. There’s enough room for serious-sized family reunions here.

Every Napili Kai guest room, from the studios to the two-bedroom and three-room suites have kitchens or, at a minimum, kitchenettes. Since eating out in Hawaii is rarely a bargain, smart families take advantage of eating in, whether that involves slicing a pineapple, opening a can of chili, or cooking a steak on the barbecue. It’s all good.

On the subject of food, Napili Kai serves free Kona coffee, orange juice, and sliced pineapples every morning under palm trees just off the main beach.

It’s all so convenient. If you don’t want to cook, the Sea House Restaurant, right at the water’s edge, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Plus, its bar is the best place on the island to watch sunsets over Lanai.

Should you visit Napili Kai Beach Resort over Easter break or in the summer or Thanksgiving or Christmas, and your children come along, they will be able to participate in the Keiki Club, another complimentary program for ages 6 to 12. Hula lessons, lei making, nature walks, Hawaiian games, movies and crafts keep youngsters busy for hours.

Kapalua Villas Resort

Adjacent to the Napili area and just a half mile further up the road from Lahaina, sits the sprawling 1650-acre resort campus of Kapalua. With miles of open space, the color green is everywhere. The three championship golf courses, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the Kapalua Bay Hotel, the 671 villa homes and condominiums, the many restaurants, the tennis center, the country store, the artist studio center and the shopping center are all surrounded by a 23,000-acre working pineapple plantation.

Big? You bet? Relaxing? To the max.

Kapalua, as a resort, is so spacious yet so well-tended and cared-for that guests feel that this is really the way a vacation should be. Again, the crammed-together beaches with their high-rise condos and hotels at Kaanapali and Wailea are counterpoints to the relaxed, verdant acres at this end of Maui.

And to describe Kapalua as almost the end-of-the-road is close to accurate. As one circles the west half of Maui, the road beyond Kapalua quickly narrows to a winding, tiny passage where barely one car can get by on certain stretches. But it is a trip worth taking.

We stayed in a Kapalua condo villa. Ours had a large bedroom, two baths, and a massive great room with a fully-outfitted kitchen and a condo-wide veranda ? for my whale watching. The furnishings were topnotch, with rich leather and elegant tropical hardwoods throughout. One unusual feature of renting a Kapalua villa is that unlimited local and long distance phone calls are included in the price.

Kapalua villa rentals include use of the villa community pool — there are three of those. Or villa guests are welcome to use the cascading pool complex at the Ritz-Carlton.

Because this end of Maui is wetter and cooler, the golf courses are larger and greener than others on the island. No wonder that the PGA Tour opens every year with the Mercedes Championships on the Plantation Course, Kapalua’s most demanding 18-holes. While the Kapalua tennis program is not to be sneezed at, the golf options here are the widest on Maui, with daily clinics, golf school, video lessons, playing lessons, and of course private lessons.

The cost of villa luxury, even during high season is $285 a night. Comparing that to the room rates at the chain hotels, I rate Kapalua villas a Hawaiian bargain. Plus Kapalua bundles golf and tennis packages, along with Hertz rental cars in three to seven night options that bring nightly prices down below $200 in off season, and below $250 in high season.

Other Maui discoveries

? David Paul’s Lahaina Grill for dinners. For sure. It gets my vote as Maui’s very best fusion dinner experience. Located off Front Street in the heart of downtown Lahaina, David Paul’s has been tops for more than 10 years and just keeps getting better. The appetizers run the gamut from Kona lobster crab cakes to seared ahi and foie gras to Kalua duck quesadellas. For salads, we especially liked the toy box tomato salad. (Order anything with super meaty-super sweet local Hana tomatoes). Entrees include eight or nine choices from the land and an equal number from the sea. And don’t leave David Paul’s without tasting its triple berry pie. Reservations are highly recommended: 808-667-5117. www.lahainagrill.com

? Chez-Paul Restaurant Francais. Yes, a week of ahi, mahi-mahi, and ono made me want something different yet familiar. Classic French is about as different on Hawaii as you can get, and the chef delivers a perfect rendition. We enjoyed all the quintessential options: French onion soup, foie gras, white spargel with truffle sauce, New Caledonia shrimp, Lobster cappuccino, and entrees like Porc with potatoes provencal. We’ll go back again, every time we visit Maui. You can’t miss it. Chez Paul’s sits across from the water on the road to Lahaina. Reservations recommended: 808-243-9560.

? Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar. This is a very special island invention. It’s a casual place that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but invents some amazing seafood combinations. Its Asian rock shrimp cakes, mango crab spring rolls, Japanese calamari salads, and rock shrimp dynamite each were first place award winners at last year’s Taste of Lahaina. We liked the low prices and inventiveness of the options so much we went back a second time. Caution: If you go on a weekend evening expect to wait awhile, unless you get in as the door opens at 5:30.

? The Haliimaile General Store is almost as famous as its creator Beverly Gannon. Gannon has been on Oprah, runs cooking classes at Kirkland’s Sur la Table, and her food warrants the attention. She’s the master of Hawaiian comfort food: mashed potatoes, ribs, rib-eye steaks –all with south-sea island spices and rubs along with sauces for dipping. The atmosphere up here (and yes, it is up-country near cowboy country Makawao) is cool and relaxed with lots of locals mixing with us mainlanders. This is an easy restaurant, even for the not-very-adventurous eater to love. For reservations: 808-572-7128.

MI family Robinson

Mercer Islanders are unusually well-traveled folks. In fact, it’s surprisingly frequent that we run into other Islanders at the far corners of our planet, and Maui is certainly no exception. This year we met the Robinson family, Islander residents, while we explored the nearly un-traveled North circle of West Maui.

We booked a Maui Eco-ADVENTURES Tour, which included a not too strenuous hike to a swim-able cascading waterfall. The Robinson family was the first to plunge the deep pools of the waterfall and lived to tell about it. Hearty souls, those Robinsons.

For tour information: www.ecomaui.com or call 808-661-7720.