How long have you been to Hawaii?
I had a discussion about the sentence in the title and was told, the sentence is wrong or funny, or you do not say that way.
I think the phrase "have been to (place)" is used to describe an experience that you went to the place. That may be why the phrase "have been to" is not suitable to ask the term staying there.
In addition, I got this information. In this URL, one of the comments clearly say ""How long have you been to Australia?" is not correct."
However, I am not fully convinced. So do you think the sentence in the tile is wrong?
P.S.
I am sure the sentence does not have any issue on the grammatical structure.
Best Answer
Yes, it both "sounds wrong" to a native speaker, and it doesn't make sense.
The phrase "[person] has been to [place]" simply means the person was present in the place at least once. It contains no information or implications about when they were there, for how long, or why. "has/have been to" is completely without duration. Asking "how long" makes no sense.
The question "Have you been to [place]?" is a question with a "yes" or "no" answer. Are you asking how long ago the person visited? Are you asking how long they stayed in the place? In either case, one would ask those questions instead.