diff --git a/lib/vagrant.rb b/lib/vagrant.rb
index 56c9b9fae..5c4ba81cf 100644
--- a/lib/vagrant.rb
+++ b/lib/vagrant.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+# Do a Ruby version check early so we can fail fast before any additional
+# files are loaded.
+if RUBY_VERSION < "2.0.0"
+  abort "Vagrant requires Ruby 2.0+"
+end
+
 require 'log4r'
 require 'rubygems'