The European route E18 highway passes through the north side of the town, connecting the capital of Oslo with Southern Norway.

[4] Various remains from the Stone Age have been discovered in the Larvik area, for instance by Torpevannet by Helgeroa village.

Ancient peoples have carried rocks from Raet and constructed vast numbers of burial mounds at Mølen.

During the Roman Iron Age, ancient peoples erected a stone monument resembling a ship at Istrehågan, one of Norway's greatest remains from prehistoric times.

[5]: 12  Skiringssal has remains from the oldest town yet discovered in the Nordic countries,[6] and it was one of Scandinavia's earliest urban sites.

In 1671, the village received kjøpstad (market town) status in 1671 when Ulrik Fredrik Gyldenløvebought the Fritsø estate.

The spa also welcomed Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson in 1909, who wrote some of his lasts poems in Larvik, and Knut Hamsun in 1917.