diff --git a/news/2553.behavior.rst b/news/2553.behavior.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d66edfa2fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/2553.behavior.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Make conservative checks of known exceptions when subprocess returns output, so user won't see the whole traceback - just the error.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pipenv/core.py b/pipenv/core.py
index 768e7ee73a..76ce7e8b47 100644
--- a/pipenv/core.py
+++ b/pipenv/core.py
@@ -925,9 +925,10 @@ def do_create_virtualenv(python=None, site_packages=False, pypi_mirror=None):
         )
         click.echo(crayons.blue("{0}".format(c.out)), err=True)
         if c.returncode != 0:
-            sp.fail(environments.PIPENV_SPINNER_FAIL_TEXT.format(u"Failed creating virtual environment"))
+            sp.fail(environments.PIPENV_SPINNER_FAIL_TEXT.format("Failed creating virtual environment"))
+            error = c.err if environments.is_verbose() else exceptions.prettify_exc(c.err)
             raise exceptions.VirtualenvCreationException(
-                extra=[crayons.blue("{0}".format(c.err)),]
+                extra=[crayons.red("{0}".format(error)),]
             )
         else:
 
diff --git a/pipenv/exceptions.py b/pipenv/exceptions.py
index 000c57153d..495a46bfbb 100644
--- a/pipenv/exceptions.py
+++ b/pipenv/exceptions.py
@@ -18,7 +18,11 @@
 )
 from .vendor.click.types import Path
 from .vendor.click.utils import echo as click_echo
+import vistir
 
+KNOWN_EXCEPTIONS = {
+    "PermissionError": "Permission denied:",
+}
 
 def handle_exception(exc_type, exception, traceback, hook=sys.excepthook):
     if environments.is_verbose() or not issubclass(exc_type, ClickException):
@@ -402,3 +406,18 @@ def __init__(self, req=None):
         )
         extra = [crayons.normal(decode_for_output(str(req)))]
         super(RequirementError, self).__init__(message, extra=extra)
+        super(ResolutionFailure, self).__init__(fix_utf8(message), extra=extra)
+
+
+def prettify_exc(error):
+    """Catch known errors and prettify them instead of showing the
+    entire traceback, for better UX"""
+    matched_exceptions = [k for k in KNOWN_EXCEPTIONS.keys() if k in error]
+    if not matched_exceptions:
+        return "{}".format(vistir.misc.decode_for_output(error))
+    errors = []
+    for match in matched_exceptions:
+        _, error, info = error.rpartition(KNOWN_EXCEPTIONS[match])
+        errors.append("{} {}".format(error, info))
+
+    return "\n".join(errors)