A lane departure prevention apparatus is configured to conduct a course correction in a lane departure avoidance direction when the controller determines that there is a potential for a vehicle to depart from a driving lane. The lane departure prevention apparatus has a driving road detecting section and a lane departure avoidance control section. The driving road detecting section is configured to determine at least one of a road slope direction and a road curvature direction of a driving road upon which a host vehicle is traveling. The lane departure avoidance control section is configured to start lane departure avoidance control based on a driving direction of the host vehicle and at least one of a road slope direction and a road curvature direction detected by the driving road detecting section.