For a growing number of British holidaymakers, planning a trip to Turkey now starts with a Doncaster roofer in a trademark hat. Terry Hill – better known to his followers as Donny Knight – has spent the past two years filming his trips to Marmaris and neighbouring İçmeler, showing viewers what hotels, meals, transport and shopping really cost, and introducing them to the cafés, restaurants and shops he finds along the way.
Hill puts his combined following across TikTok, Facebook and Instagram at around half a million, with more than 200,000 people following him on TikTok alone. In a message shared with The UK Pulse, he described his mission as "helping the Turkish tourist industry in many ways" – covering travel, transport and hotels, "everything everyone needs to know", with plenty of humour along the way. His audience now stretches around the world, he says, and some viewers have come to Turkey because of his videos.
How Terry became Donny Knight
The nickname predates TikTok. In July 2018, as Doncaster celebrated England's 2-0 World Cup quarter-final win over Sweden, Hill – then a 53-year-old roofer from Balby – climbed on to a bus shelter in Silver Street dressed as St George and leapt into the crowd below. Clips of the jump were viewed more than 120,000 times within days, the Doncaster Free Press reported at the time.
"My proper name's Terry," he explained in an interview filmed in Marmaris last October. "The media named me Donny Knight. So, Donny, Doncaster for short, and I was dressed as a knight."
When he started posting on TikTok, the name came with him. A video of him surprising his daughter went viral, taking him to 11,000 followers and earning an invitation to TikTok's Creativity Programme. His first trip abroad as a content creator was to Thailand in April 2024 – where he picked up the hat and silk shirt that have become his calling card – and his travels have since taken in Egypt and Dubai. He says he runs the whole operation himself, without any help.
From a hospital bed to the Turkish coast
Those travels were almost brought to an abrupt halt at the start of 2025. After finding he could not warm up his feet, Hill was diagnosed with blocked arteries in his abdomen and underwent urgent surgery to save his left foot, the Doncaster Free Press reported in March 2025. The operation forced him to put his roofing business – the work that had paid for his trips – on hold.
By late May he was back in Marmaris, posting a clip captioned "from the hospital bed to back solo travelling". He returned every month until the end of October, and by the close of the season said he had gained more than 60,000 followers and met thousands of them in person. "They've turned me into a celebrity when I'm a normal person," he said. "To them, I'm helping everyone have a very good holiday when they come here."
Why Turkey?
Hill says part of the motivation was to answer the negative content about Turkey he had seen online, much of it, he believes, from creators chasing views. "Turkey got a lot of slating off a lot of content creators that have never come here," he said. "So when I come here and saw things, I thought I'm going to vlog my journey in Turkey."
The result is a running, practical guide to the resort: how to find flights and hotels, what to expect from a hotel once you arrive, where to eat, which boat trips and excursions are worth booking, and which shops to visit in Marmaris and the surrounding area.
What a Turkish holiday really costs
Money is a recurring theme. Hill accepts that prices in Turkey have risen, but says "it has gone up, but not as much as it is back at home and in Europe". Among the bargains he has filmed are a family-run hotel in Marmaris offering bed and breakfast for £26 a night and a beachfront breakfast for £2.99.
Getting around is cheap too, he says. The dolmuş – the shared minibuses that shuttle along the bay between Marmaris and İçmeler – cost him 40 lira, or about 70p, for a ten-minute ride last season. "Back at home that trip will cost you a fiver," he said. "Why is Turkey expensive? It isn't, not at all."
His golden rule is to avoid the busiest stretches of the seafront, where he says prices can be inflated. "You step back a street and listen to content creators or local Turkish people ... and I found some beautiful places," he said.
Cafés, curry houses and shopkeepers
Much of his content revolves around the small, often family-run businesses that rely on the tourist season: cafés and curry houses, pancake shops, hotels, and the clothing, trainer and jewellery shops where he films his shopping hauls. One of his tips is to travel with an empty suitcase to make room for bargains on the way home.
Those relationships matter to him. "I've met some brilliant, brilliant businessmen," he said. "We've become very close friends ... together we've formed like a team, that we're helping each other. But we know we're helping thousands of followers."
There is plenty of lighter material too, from meeting followers around Marmaris to the early-morning "sunbed wars" at resort hotels.
"You should always come here"
Hill has been back in Marmaris again this year, documenting the second stage of dental treatment he began there in 2024 – a series in which he admits to "facing my fears" of the dentist. He describes his alter ego's output as a mix of everything: "He does crazy, serious, helpful, dangerous," he said. "I do everything."
Asked last autumn to sum up the country after a season of monthly visits, he did not hesitate. "The people I have met are lovely," he said. "They will bend over backwards and do you a favour ... That is why I love Turkey, and you should always come here."
He has promised to keep bringing followers "the latest news on all the prices and everything it has to offer". Donny Knight posts on TikTok as @donny_knight.
