For most of us it is essential that we keep our car on the roads. Not only do we need it to get to and from work but many of us use the car to do the shopping, take the kids to school and to get everywhere we want to go.
There is of course public transport but buses do not go everywhere, they are relatively expensive for one off trips and it takes at least twice as long to get from A to B using public transport. So realistically a car is the only way to get about. If you wanted to go to the coast for the weekend and did not want to rely on public transport, assuming it went to where you wanted to go, you may want to borrow a car. You may be able to borrow a friend or more likely a relative's car for the day or the weekend. You are also going to need insurance, you could get added onto the car owners policy but this can be expensive and they may not relish the chance of losing their no claims if you were to have an accident on their policy.
The alternative is to get your own temporary car insurance policy that will cover you to drive the car for the period of time that you will be borrowing it. You can take out temporary insure for between 1 and 28 days to cover you to drive most vehicles including vans as well as cars. This way you are only paying for the cover that you need when you need it.
Like all car insurance if you are a young driver then the premiums are going to be more expensive, this is particularly true if you are under 25. Some temp car cover insurers will not insure anyone under 25 on a temporary policy.
If you are having trouble getting temporary car insurance for under 25's to drive a car on a daily policy then you can get monthly pay as you go car insurance cover. This works by covering you a month at a time and is the only alternative if you are unable to get cover on a temporary car insurance policy.