Looks like the security situation in Cairo is declining:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/...ion/index.html

Second time in around a month.

Terrorism of any sort is bad enough but the fact the attack was aimed at tourists is particularly troubling.


[Edited to delete reference to a 'bus', after reading about a second attack near the museum]

The situation is certainly worthy of the most serious attention of any traveler to the region, and I wouldn't minimize it. But note that in the second attack, police were ready enough to kill/wound the attackers, rather than arrive after they'd melted away. (And skilled and equipped well enough to succeed.) That suggests that Egypt remains quite serious about protecting tourism.

As I probably mentioned before we last spent time in Egypt a few days after the African embassy bombings and American retaliation. We avoided tourist gaggles (slipping into the Egyption Museum area from the back, not necessarily as clever as I then thought) but were seriously impressed by a strong and professional police presence. Shooters were positioned high and well separated, and equipment like walkie talkies seemed to be clear and top quality. That's all I could notice, having no military bg.

So if I were booked today, I'd do the same as before. Avoid American properties and tourist crowds, and keep my head down.

I have a OW Award on hold to get me there in March of 2006 for the solar eclipse. Stuff like this, I don't need to see.

I need to see things like this; I want to be appraised of situations in areas where I travel.
I finish one RTW & start a 4th next month (6-16) in CAI. I NEED to know this, as a traveller. I will stay 2 nights, and just maintain a low profile.

Certainly anyone traveling independently to a potential trouble spot owes it to himself and his friends to learn everything possible about the situation, and to stay tuned in throughout the visit.

In addition, unless I really needed an antiquities fix, I'd just hang out at one of the non-American hotels at Heliopolis until time to leave.

I didn't mean this literally guys. Just saying I wish this werent happening as it may signal a return of the 90's fundamentalist movement.