Camp Olympia vs Camp Huawni: The Closest Comparison in East Texas

Of all the camps Texas families weigh against us, Camp Olympia is the closest comparison — the same part of the state, the same coed traditional model, the same unplugged stance. If you are choosing between the two, the differences are specific and mostly not about philosophy.

This is a comparison written by one of the two camps in it, which you should factor in. What we have tried to do is keep every claim about Camp Olympia to something published on campolympia.com — checked on 24 August 2026 — and be specific about the families we are not the right answer for. Where they publish nothing, we say so instead of filling the gap.

Who Camp Olympia is

From their own site, as of August 2026: Camp Olympia is at 723 Olympia Drive, Trinity, Texas, on the shores of Lake Livingston. It serves campers aged 6 to 16, is coed, and offers one-, two- and three-week sessions. They state they are accredited by the American Camping Association, describe over 45 activity options, a 1:4 staff-to-camper ratio, air-conditioned cabins, and a tech-free environment.

Who we are

Camp Huawni is a traditional, coed overnight camp in Timpson, in the East Texas Piney Woods, running since 1965. Campers are 7 to 17. Sessions are one week or two, on 600-plus acres.

The scale is deliberately small: a maximum of 100 girls and 70 boys in a session, about 50 college-aged staff, a 3.2 to 1 camper-to-staff ratio last summer, and cabins holding at most 14 campers with 2 counselors. Cabins are screened wooden buildings with bathhouses just outside — traditional rather than modern.

We are unplugged. No phones, tablets or laptops, for anyone, the whole session.

We are licensed by the Texas Department of State Health Services under the Texas Youth Camp Health and Safety Act. We are not ACA accredited.

Side by side

Camp Olympia figures read from campolympia.com on 24 August 2026.

Where Camp Olympia is the better choice

We should be direct here, because on several concrete measures they are ahead of us.

Accreditation. They are ACA accredited and we are not. That is a voluntary programme covering several hundred standards with site visits, and it is a legitimate thing for a parent to require. We hold the Texas DSHS licence that every youth camp in the state must have, which is the floor rather than the ceiling.

Air-conditioned cabins. Ours are screened wooden cabins. In a Texas July that is a genuine difference, and for a child who does not sleep well in heat it may be the whole decision.

A younger starting age. They take campers from 6; we start at 7.

A three-week option. We do not run one.

More activities on the menu. 45-plus against our 20-plus.

Where we are the better choice

Camp size, and what it does to a session. We cap at 170 campers with a maximum of 14 in a cabin and 2 counselors in it. That is the number that determines whether your child is known, and it is the thing our alumni consistently name.

A published price. Our full rate ladder is on the dates and rates page, including the registration windows that move it. For Summer 2027, one-week sessions run $1,525 to $1,825 and two-week sessions $3,000 to $3,800. We cannot tell you how that compares to Olympia because they do not publish theirs — ask them, and ask what is excluded.

A traditional camp, deliberately. Screened cabins and an outdoor bathhouse are not a shortfall we are working on; they are the camp. Sixty years of families have chosen it on purpose. If your child would rather be a little uncomfortable and outdoors than comfortable and indoors, that is us. If not, that is a real reason to pick elsewhere and we would rather you did.

Tribal Competition. Our two-week sessions are built around it, and it is the thing alumni talk about decades later. What changes in the second week covers why it does not compress into one.

What we could not verify

Camp Olympia does not publish tuition or cabin group sizes on the pages we read. Their 1:4 figure is described as staff-to-camper; ours is a camper-to-staff ratio measured last summer, and the two are not necessarily counted the same way — ask both camps how many counselors sleep in a cabin, which is the comparable number.

None of that is a criticism — camps publish different things, and plenty of it is answered on a phone call. But do not take our table as a substitute for asking them directly, and be sceptical of any comparison page, including this one, that appears to know a competitor's numbers precisely.

How to decide

These two camps are close enough that the honest advice is to visit both. An hour on each property will tell you more than any comparison page, including this one.

If you cannot visit, the question that separates them fastest is the cabin one: air-conditioned bunk with more campers around, or a screened cabin of fourteen in the pines. Neither answer is wrong, and children are usually clearer about it than parents.

For the wider framework, see our parent's guide to Texas camps, or get in touch and ask us the hard questions directly.