A vacuum cleaner capable of smoothly traveling along an obstacle. A control unit has modes of travel control and directional change control. In the travel control, while a distance between a main casing and a sideward obstacle detected by a distance measuring sensor is kept within a specified distance range, a motor is driven so as to make the main casing travel along the obstacle. In the directional change control, when an obstacle forward of the main casing is detected by a contact sensor during the travel control, the motor is driven so as to make the main casing change in advancing direction along the detected forward obstacle. The directional change control includes at least swing control for driving the motor so as to make the main casing swing to a specified swing angle while disregarding a distance detected by the distance measuring sensor.