I am not sure which version of XAMPP you are using so I will use a general setting change that should work in most XAMPP versions.
Open phpMyAdmin
http://localhost/phpmyadmin and click on the Privileges tab and select the user's edit button, at the end of the line of root in your case, and in the Edit Privileges window locate the Change Login Information / Copy User box.
You may see a root for 127.0.0.1 and Localhost so you may wish to repeat the following for both instances.
Locate the
Host: line and from the drop box change from
Local to
Any Host which should put a
% character in the box next to the one you just changed.
If required then enter your password twice and select the
Go button associated with the Change Login Information / Copy User box.
The password can be skipped if you are not changing the password.
Restart MySQL and then test your remote access again.
Remember to return this setting change back to Local after you have completed your trip so as to again give the root user a modicum of security.
BTW it is
not advisable to use the super user root to access a specific database but rather you should create a user name and password specifically for accessing specific databases and then grant specific privileges for that user - root user has absolute access to all databases and could pose a security threat if it were to get into the wrong hands, alternatively make sure your root user password is kept safe and is of sufficient strength as to be as hard to discover as possible - the root user password change is best implemented using the
http://localhost/security pages.
Good luck and have a nice trip.
Edit - JonB posted while I was compiling this, no conflict or second opinion intended.
