A vehicle travel control apparatus includes an information acquiring section; a determining section that determines whether a special road terrain exists; and a speed control section that controls a speed of the subject vehicle. The speed control section is further configured to: when the special road terrain exists but a preceding vehicle does not exist, increase or decrease the speed of the subject vehicle with respect to a pre-set vehicle speed in the energy efficiency zone such that the energy efficiency is improved; and when the special road terrain and a preceding vehicle exists and the speed of the subject vehicle is planned to increase in the energy efficiency zone, control the speed of the subject vehicle in an inter-vehicle distance maintenance zone such that the subject vehicle has an inter-vehicle distance to the preceding vehicle longer than a pre-set inter-vehicle distance.