A thermal sensation determining apparatus includes a skin temperature detecting unit configured to detect a skin temperature of a peripheral site of a subject's body, a variation state determining unit configured to determine a variation state of the skin temperature during a first interval to obtain a variation state determination result, a gradient detecting unit configured to detect a gradient of the skin temperature during a second interval to determine the gradient to obtain a gradient detection result, and a thermal sensation determining unit configured to determine the subject's thermal sensation using the variation state determination result and the gradient detection result to obtain a thermal sensation determination result classified into levels ranging from “hot” to “cold” based on a “moderate” temperature.