Yeah, in any manga where a single scene can last more than a chapter, it really is best to hold off and read in bursts. Even if you catch up on ten chapters at a time and still end up on cliffhangers, the cliffhangers do their job of making you wonder what'll happen next and help you remember what was going on when you come back, instead of making you hate the manga for leaving so many cliffhangers in a row.
For a more extreme example, look at Berserk's little boat arc.
It didn't actually take that up that many chapters itself (still a lot more than most manga spend on one arc, but it's Berserk), the problem was that cutting between the party and Griffith's side story meant people spent more time on feeling like the party was still on the boat then they did actually reading about what was happening on the boat, and by the end of it fifty-six chapters and seven fucking years had past.
Going back and reading those fifty-six chapters again, not all of them are on the boat so it doesn't really seem poorly paced, and it wraps itself up pretty nicely as part of the journey. It certainly takes a hell of a lot less than seven years to read, as well.
And we still get to see the ride back. :^)