OTTAWA - Same-day car travel by Canadians to the United States hit its highest level in almost seven years in October as the loonie surpassed parity with the U.S. dollar.

At the same time, same-day car travel by U.S. residents to Canada hit a record low.

Statistics Canada reports Canadian residents took about 2.2 million same-day car trips to the United States in October, six per cent more than in September.

With the average monthly value of the Canadian dollar in October at US $1.03, it was the highest number of same-day car trips to the U.S. in one month since January 2001.

Overnight car travel to the United States jumped 4.9 per cent to 972,000 trips, the highest monthly level since September 1993.

Overall, Canadian residents took nearly 3.9 million trips to the United States in October, up 4.2 per cent, while almost 1.6 million of these trips were overnight stays, a 1.9 per cent gain.

The number of overnight trips to Canada from overseas countries slipped 0.3 per cent to 375,000 in October, while travel by Canadian residents overseas rose 3.2 per cent to 642,000 - the seventh record monthly high set in 2007.