Proposed in this paper is a discrete artificial firefly algorithm combined with variable neighborhood search algorithm, which is used to solve traveling salesman problems.First, the distance of artificial firefly algorithm is redefined by introducing the concepts of swap operator and swap sequence.Secondly, in order to increase the diversity of firefly swarms and to avoid quick convergence to local optimal solution, a perturbation mechanism is designed on the basis of variable neighborhood search algorithm.Then, several different traveling salesman problems are solved by using the proposed algorithm, and the results finally show that the proposed algorithm is superior to the typical ones in literatures because it helps obtain good solving results.