To solve the vehicle routing problem with time windows (VRPTW), this study establishes a mixed-integer programming model aimed at minimizing total distance and proposes a hybrid ant colony optimization algorithm with relaxed time window constraints. Firstly, an improved ant colony algorithm, combined with TSP-Split encoding and decoding, is proposed to construct a routing solution that allows time-window constraints to be violated, to improve the global optimization ability of the algorithm. Then, a repair strategy based on variable neighborhood search is proposed to repair infeasible solutions using the principle of return in time and the penalty function method. Finally, 56 Solomon and 12 Homberger benchmark instances are tested. The results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to the comparative algorithms from references. The known optimal solution can be obtained in 50 instances, and quasi-optimal solutions can be obtained in the remaining instances within acceptable computing time. The results prove the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.