one way car rental from Prague

You don't say, yet, what stops you'd like to make on the way where you'd benefit from a car. Car is most useful for smaller towns and rural areas that either don't have train service or don't have simple connections. Train service is extensive to towns of any size, but of course not free. Flights directly from Prague to Paris or Amsterdam can be quite affordable, if you just want to get there. See tips and links at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation.

Thanks, we will be heading up Germany to Hamburg, over to Amsterdam making up the route as we go. I probably would leave the car there (staying 3-4 days) & the rent another one, one way to Paris where we stay a few days before flying home to Canada. We rarely use the train as we like the freedom of a car, but the one way rental fees I have been finding seem high. Is this typical using Prague as a starting point?

One way rental car fees are always high especially returning car in different country. It does not matter if you start in Prague or whatever other city.

You will be paying two huge financial penalties, one each time you drop off the car in a different country from where you rented it.

It is not the same as renting a car in California and returning it in Colorado. I don't know from where you write, braidrich, so I am using an example from the US. The drop charge would be minimal.

If you rent the car in Prague and return it to Prague, or another Czech city the drop charge will be zero or very low. If you drop it in another country the fees will be really high. Europe, despite one currency in much of the place, and no or very slight border controls between countries is made up of a couple of dozen independent countries. Those countries have to return cars brought into them to where they came from. Hence the charges (and because they can, of course).

So Prague to Amsterdam - one great big charge. Then rent another car? Amsterdam to Paris will also come with a great huge fee.

Does that make sense?

To find the amount of the fee, plug in your dates for the journey you want to do, then plug in the same dates for cars returned to Prague and Amsterdam each time. The difference is the international drop off fee. It will be different because of differences returning cars to Amsterdam from France and to Prague from Amsterdam.

When you see why something happens it can start to make sense.

I saw the Canada in your second post. So my analogy would be it would not cost much to drop a car hired in Calgary in Winnipeg.... in case you are not familiar with west coast US geography.

You will find returning a car in another country other than Chech Republic to be very expensive.

You could take the train from Prague to Berlin--stopping off in Dresden along the way.

Then rent a car upon leaving Berlin--turning it in before leaving Germany along the train route to Amsterdam. You could jump the train into Amsterdam.