The Grand Hôtel de Valloire et du Galibier goes for five stars: 43 rooms and 300 sq m of wellness by winter 2028-2029

In Valloire, the village’s largest hotel is about to change category. The Grand Hôtel de Valloire et du Galibier, a three-star house standing at the foot of the slopes since the late 19th century, is aiming for a five-star rating, which would be the first in the resort and in the whole Maurienne valley, with building work announced from early November 2026 and delivery targeted for winter 2028-2029.

☰Contents

1. What Valloire has never had
2. A grand hotel on the Galibier road
3. 37 rooms today, 43 after the works
4. An indoor pool and 300 sq m of calm
5. The copper chimney stays centre stage
6. Two ski seasons of building work
7. Our take

What Valloire has never had

The resort has hotels, apartment residences and chalets, but not a single five-star address, and neither does the Maurienne valley. The project led by the family group Hôtels Charme & Design is aiming for exactly that rating for the Grand Hôtel de Valloire et du Galibier, currently a three-star hotel. Cécile and Stéphane Rives, who run the group, already operate character hotels in Carcassonne and Aigues-Mortes: Valloire would be their first mountain address.

The step just completed is financial rather than architectural. A private investor has been found to carry part of the land and of the cost of the works, in a property deal handled by the Lyon office of hotel advisory firm Christie & Co. « For the town of Valloire, this is probably one of the most ambitious hotel projects of recent years », says Boris Duclos, hotel broker at Christie & Co France, who led the assignment. The building site itself is still ahead.

A grand hotel on the Galibier road

The house occupies a long white building with wooden balconies, on rue des Grandes Alpes, at the entrance to the village, beside the roundabout with its bronze chamois. It sits at the foot of the Brive gondola and on the road to the Col du Galibier, two positions that explain its double season: skiers in winter, cyclists, motorcyclists and hikers in summer. The Galibier Thabor ski area, reached by that gondola, offers 150 km of pistes.

Valloire is a village resort at 1,430 m, in a commune that rises from the banks of the Arc, around 700 m, up to the Aiguilles d’Arves at more than 3,500 m. Two dates circulate for the hotel’s age: the property file gives 1878 as the year of construction, while the hotel’s own website describes it as « established in 1890 » and as one of the oldest in the resort. Either way, the house came long before the ski lifts.

37 rooms today, 43 after the works

The hotel currently offers 37 rooms of 15 to 32 sq m, in eight categories, from the classic double to the corner deluxe with balcony. Balconies face south, satellite television, wifi, a direct telephone line and a safe come as standard, and breakfast is served as a buffet in the dining room or continental-style in the room. The hotel states that it has no room adapted for guests with reduced mobility.

The project is due to raise capacity to 43 rooms, the new ones averaging 25 sq m, and to renovate every existing space. The announced decoration picks up mountain chalet codes in a contemporary reading, warm and intimate in tone. Going from 37 to 43 rooms implies extending the building: that extension, as much as the renovation, explains the length of the timetable.

An indoor pool and 300 sq m of calm

This is the most spectacular item on the programme. A wellness area of more than 300 sq m is due to bring together an indoor pool and an outdoor pool, a gym, a jacuzzi, a sauna and a hammam, where the hotel today relies on three facilities only.

Part of it already exists, and it is in fact the house argument: the Grand Hôtel is the only hotel in the resort with a heated outdoor pool, paired with a solarium, alongside a sauna and a fitness room. What the works add is the covered pool, the jacuzzi, the hammam and a single unified space. The nuance matters for skiers: the current pool is only advertised as open in summer.

The copper chimney stays centre stage

The large dining room is built around a central fireplace crowned with a hammered copper hood, under white arches and on a stone floor. The restaurant and the bar are to be completely renovated, with the spaces rearranged around that fireplace, which therefore stays: it is the visual landmark of the house.

The hotel bar, the Baratapas, serves wines by the glass, cocktails and tapas all day, on the terrace facing the peaks or inside when the weather turns. A modular meeting room is also planned, to widen the business clientele: the project counts on 75 % leisure stays, the remaining quarter coming from seminars and groups.

Two ski seasons of building work

For anyone planning a stay, the timetable is the most useful figure in the file. Works are due to start in early November 2026 and delivery is targeted for winter 2028-2029: two ski seasons separate the first blow of the pickaxe from the promised hotel.

Some unknowns remain. The announcement does not say whether the hotel will keep operating during the works, nor where rates will sit once the fifth star is obtained. No « from » price was displayed on the official website on 21 September 2026, and the pages devoted to packages and special offers had not yet been filled in. A call to the hotel is in order before booking the coming winter.

Our take

A five-star hotel in Valloire is not one more palace in a showcase resort, it is a first in a valley that had none. The Maurienne lives in the shadow of the Tarentaise and its big names, and a five-star house at 1,430 m, in a village that has kept its bell tower and its farms, is not playing on the same ground as Courchevel. Everything will depend on execution: 43 rooms is still a human-scale house, and 300 sq m of wellness is measured next to the 1,500 sq m spas the Alps now advertise.

We have not yet stayed at the Grand Hôtel de Valloire et du Galibier. We will go and see what it becomes once the works are finished, and we will tell you whether the fifth star reads anywhere other than on the façade.

Practical information

• Grand Hôtel de Valloire et du Galibier, rue des Grandes Alpes, 73450 Valloire, Savoie, France
• By car: A43 motorway to Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne, then 17 km on the D902 over the Col du Télégraphe, winter tyres or chains required in season
• By train: Saint-Michel-Valloire station 17 km away, direct TGV from Paris in 4 hr 30 on Saturdays and Sundays during the winter holidays, with connecting coaches and taxis
• By air: Chambéry (110 km), Grenoble (185 km), Lyon-Saint-Exupéry (190 km) and Geneva (195 km) airports
• Good to know: the Col du Galibier is closed from late October to early June, so Valloire is then reached over the Col du Télégraphe

Photo credit Grand Hôtel de Valloire et du Galibier