Occupied by a glacier until the end of the Palaeolithic period, the upper Valloire valley was soon inhabited by man. Thanks to the fertility of its soil and the abundant presence of wood and minerals, the first inhabitants settled there around 1200 B.C. But it was not until the Middle Ages that Valloire established itself as a key location between the Maurienne and Dauphiné regions, in particular with the construction of the Saint-Pierre castle on the rock facing the hotel. Until 1630, the population never stopped growing and reached its peak in that year with almost 3500 permanent inhabitants, which made it the most populated commune in the valley.

The village, whose economy was essentially based on agriculture, was visited by a few summer travellers from the middle of the 19th century and was also popularised by the Tour de France in 1911. The most marked turn towards tourism occurred towards the end of the 1930s.