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On a Recent Holiday You Lost a Valuable Item

IELTS General Training Task 1 Letter

This is an example IELTS letter task, in the General Training IELTS writing test.

IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 questions ask you to reply appropriately to a situation by writing a letter. The situation is: On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item. Your letter should respond to the instructions in the Task Question.

IELTS Writing Task 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.

On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item. Fortunately, you have travel insurance to cover the cost of anything lost

Write a letter to the manger of your insurance company. In your letter

  • Describe the item lost
  • Explain how you lost it
  • Tell the insurance company what you would like them to do

Write at least 150 words.




On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item

IELTS General Training Writing Task 1

IELTS Letter Sample Answer

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to inform that during a recent holiday in Singapore I lost my camera. The camera is a Canon XA20 semi professional video camera which I use to make documentary film footage. The value of the camera as new was $2,000 and it was only 4 months old.

The camera was lost during a transfer from one hotel to another while on holiday. When I arrived at the second hotel the camera bag was not delivered with the rest of the luggage. The company responsible for the luggage transfer denies all knowledge of the camera case or its whereabouts.

I believe, according to the travel insurance policy I have with your company, the camera is fully covered and would like to make a claim on the policy for the replacement value of the item. Please advise what documentation you require and the correct process to file an insurance claim in respect of the camera.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,


Peter Smallson



On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item

Sample Answer

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to inform you about a recent holiday I had during which I lost my camera. I took out travel insurance before the trip and am glad that this has covered all of the costs incurred from losing my camera. I hope that you will be able to reimburse me for my loss.

On Saturday morning (24th July) at about 10 am, we were on a boat ride in the middle of Lake Titicaca looking for wildlife in between stops at islands along the way. When I was back on the bus returning to the hotel, I noticed my camera was missing. As such, it is difficult to say exactly what happened, but there are a couple of possible explanations.

The first possibility is that someone stole it from me while I was taking photos on the boat. The second possibility is that I left it on a bus during our visit to the islands.

In any case, I look forward to being reimbursed for the cost of my camera.

Yours faithfully,



(First Name) (Last Name)


On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item

Sample Answer

Dear Sir/Madam,

While on holiday I lost my phone. The travel insurance I have with ACME Insurance Inc. should cover the cost of it. The phone was lost when I was traveling around sightseeing, and it fell out of my pocket. I would like ACME Insurance Inc. to pay me for the new phone I need because my travel insurance plan with you should cover its loss.

I need to replace my lost phone with an equivalent model, as it is no longer possible for me to find the original one in time before we move out of our rented accommodation at the end of this month. My phone is a black Samsung Galaxy Avant, model number SM-G350. Please let me know what I can do to get a new one. Is there a claim form I need to fill out?

Thank you for your time reading my letter, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Yours faithfully,



Jane Doe

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