I'm away from home over Chanukah. Where and how do I light?

Here's what you need to know

You do have to light Chanukah candles (or oil) even away from home, and where and how depends mainly on whether you're staying as a guest with a host, alone in a hotel, or covered by a spouse lighting for you back home.

The specific rule is

Set up and light your own menorah where you are staying that night (your hotel room or dorm room, or, if you are a guest eating at a host's table, where you eat), positioned so the light is visible, ideally near a window facing the street or by the entrance. If your spouse is lighting for you at your home while you're away, you are technically already fulfilled through their lighting, but the widespread practice is to still light your own menorah as a guest, and many recite the blessings in that case as well.

Step by step

• Find out whether anyone at home is lighting on your behalf (this affects whether you say the blessing or just light without one)
• Set up your menorah where you are staying (if you are eating at a host's table, where you eat), positioned near a window facing the street, or by the door, so the light is visible if that's practical
• Add the new candle or oil cup for that night (right to left as you face the menorah, so the newest one ends up on your left as more nights are added)
• Recite the blessing for kindling (l'hadlik ner shel Chanukah) and the blessing over the miracle (she'asah nissim), and if it's the first time you light this Chanukah, also the blessing of thanks (shehecheyanu)
• Light the candles starting with the newest one added that night, moving from left to right
• Let the candles burn for at least half an hour after nightfall before they may be extinguished or moved

Background

The core obligation is to have a menorah lit in the place where you are actually spending the night, since the whole point of the mitzvah is to publicize the miracle in your dwelling. A traveler or guest (achsanai) is generally obligated to light on his own, not merely rely on someone else's menorah at a distance, unless he is contributing financially to that household's oil or candles, in which case classical sources treat him as included in that lighting.

When a spouse is lighting at home while you travel, opinions differ on whether you are fully covered by that lighting or should light again yourself. Ashkenazi custom generally has every adult member of a household light their own menorah regardless, which supports lighting again as a guest too, often with the full blessing. Sephardi custom, where one lighting per household is the norm, leans more toward saying you are covered by your spouse's lighting and would light without a blessing, or skip it, if relying on that view.

If you are alone in a hotel or dorm with no housemate lighting for you, you are unambiguously obligated to light there yourself, with all the blessings as usual. Placement near a window facing the public way fulfills the ideal of publicizing the miracle, but if a window isn't practical or hotel policy or safety concerns don't allow an open flame there, lighting on a table inside the room, away from flammable materials, still fulfills the mitzvah. Because the details of spousal coverage, hotel fire policies, and contribution-based inclusion vary by exact situation and community, someone unsure of their own family's practice should ask a rabbi.

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