British comedy legend John Cleese took a $5,400 taxi ride from Oslo to Brussels after becoming stranded in Europe's volcanic ash travel crisis.

"We checked every option, but there were no boats and no train tickets available," Cleese told Norwegian TV2 in a telephone interview posted on the network's website in Norwegian.

"That's when my fabulous assistant determined the easiest thing would be to take a taxi."

The bill? A whopping 30,000 kroner ($5,400), said Cleese, who was visiting the Norwegian capital to take part in the popular Scandinavian talk show Skavlan.

The taxi carried two extra drivers for the 1,500-kilometre drive, TV2 reported.

"It will be interesting. I'm not in a hurry," Cleese said, adding that from Brussels he planned to take the Eurostar train to London, where he hoped to arrive by 3:00pm (local time) Saturday.

"I will think about a joke you've probably already heard: How do you get God to laugh? Tell him your plans," Cleese said.

The comedian, famous for his roles in Fawlty Towers and Monty Python, is not the only one spending heavily on taxis as the volcanic ash from Iceland spreads over Europe.

According to Oslo Taxi, drivers have made numerous trips between Oslo and Stockholm since Thursday and a number of fares have gone even further.

"The longest trip so far was from Oslo to Paris," Oslo Taxi spokesman Lars Dolva told the NTB news agency.

- AFP