Help for my first trip to India (tentative itinerary)

With this first post I started asking for your help my first trip to India. Tentative date will be from January 27-February 17 (total days in India will be 20). Budget will be around 5,000 dollars (for two). This is my tentative itinerary:

January 28-29 New Delhi

January 29-30 Varanasi

January 30-January 31 (Agra)

The rest of days will concentrate on Rajasthan and it will be like this:

Jaisalmer 4 days; Jodhpur 3 days; Jaipur 3 days, Udaipur 3 days. On route to Udaipur want to go to Ranakpur too. Last two days in New Delhi for last minute shoppings.

Questions: I've been searching in different India Tours companies and they usually includes cities like Bikaner, Mandawa and Pushkar. Are these cities just for a nights rest between the most important cities or are a must? How would you combine the flights, trains and car and drivers in the most effective way between the first four cities mentioned? To which cities you would fly, take train or go by car? What kind of lodging can I get with my budget? Thanks in advance for your help.

All the major places in Rajasthan are well connected by rail & road both.
there are overnight trains from Delhi to Jaisalmer, Jodhpur & Udaipur. You dont need 3 days in Jodhpur. You can take the overnight train from Delhi to Jodhpur... do sightseeing whole day & take another overnight train from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer,.. u can return to Jodhpur from Jaisalmer by another overnight train or take a direct train to Delhi.
Hire a cab in Udaipur & visit Ranakpur & Kumbhalgarh. There is a great resort at Kumbhalgarh. Pushkar is a religious place... camel fair draws huge crowd to Pushkar.
Rajasthan being a very important tourist destination there are many posts on travel in Rajasthan.. do read those.

Thes are important destinations in their own right and to be honest you might find you enjoy these places far more that Agra or Jaipur.

You might also consider dropping one or two of the cities on your Rajasthan itinery as there's a similar them to all the places you plan to visit and they are busy towns, try and fit in a smaller destination where you can have some respite from busy towns!!

As far as transport goes well Varanasi is the only place you might consider flying to and from!!
The rest of your itinery is easy to do by train or taxi!!

Theres a good reason why places like Bikaner etc get included even though as Cyberhippie and Jyotirmoy have pointed out, some of these are repititive. The reason is that despite its popularity Jaisalmer has the worst connectivity in Rajasthan. There are no flights. You can only get in and out by train from Jodhpur. As a result the most popular means of travelling around Rajasthan has become by car doing a circuit. This suits Delhi agents very well as they can dump the tourist in a car for 15 days and count the cash. If you just want to visit the cities mentioned, this is what you can do -
31 Jan - Drive Agra to Jaipur via Sikri.
1 Feb - 4 Feb - in Jaipur. Take train or flight to Udaipur.
4 - 7 Feb - In Udaipur
7 - 8 Feb - Drive to Kumbhalgarh (Aodhi is the bets www.hrhindia.com) or Ranakpur (stay at Aranya Niwas ).
8 - 11 Feb - Drive to Jodhpur..too may days but you could consider staying at Luni en route from Ranakpur. Also consider Manvar www.manvar.com.
11 Feb - Train or drive to jaisalmer.
11 - 15 Feb - Jaisalmer. Train to Delhi. See Steve_ber's postings for all the train connections. Email me if you need any more help. Have a great trip.

I have to say, i enjoyed Mandawa way more than Delhi, Agra or Jaipur..It is quieter and way more interesting...Also was able to be more intimate with the local people..

Having said that, still liked the other places..but my greatest memories were in Mandawa, Karuili (sp) and Varanasi..

Haven't been to Jaisalmer..but that is next!!

Thanks to all of you, guys. I'm doing some changes to include some of your suggestions for the tip. Will keep you posted of how is it going.