diff --git a/docs/source/cpp/env_vars.rst b/docs/source/cpp/env_vars.rst
index e4f8f9046a17a..911d45af9c287 100644
--- a/docs/source/cpp/env_vars.rst
+++ b/docs/source/cpp/env_vars.rst
@@ -68,8 +68,8 @@ that changing their value later will have an effect.
    execution traces.  Possible values are:
 
    - ``ostream``: emit textual log messages to stdout;
-   - ``otlp_http``: emit JSON traces to a HTTP server (by default, the endpoint
-     URL is "http://localhost:4318/v1/traces");
+   - ``otlp_http``: emit OTLP JSON encoded traces to a HTTP server (by default,
+     the endpoint URL is "http://localhost:4318/v1/traces");
    - ``arrow_otlp_stdout``: emit JSON traces to stdout;
    - ``arrow_otlp_stderr``: emit JSON traces to stderr.
 
diff --git a/docs/source/cpp/opentelemetry.rst b/docs/source/cpp/opentelemetry.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..db6c0ac44698a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/source/cpp/opentelemetry.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+.. Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+.. or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+.. distributed with this work for additional information
+.. regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+.. to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+.. "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+.. with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+..   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+.. Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+.. software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+.. "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+.. KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+.. specific language governing permissions and limitations
+.. under the License.
+
+.. _cpp_opentelemetry:
+
+=============
+OpenTelemetry
+=============
+
+Portions of Arrow C++ are instrumented with the `OpenTelemetry
+<https://opentelemetry.io/>`_ C++ SDK which makes it possible to generate
+detailed tracing information which can be analyzed in other tools.
+
+Creating a Build with OpenTelemetry Tracing Enabled
+---------------------------------------------------
+
+OpenTelemetry tracing is not turned on by default so you must first create a
+custom build of Arrow C++ with tracing turned on. See :ref:`Building Arrow C++
+<building-arrow-cpp>` for general instructions on creating a custom build.
+
+To enable tracing, specify ``ARROW_WITH_OPENTELEMETRY=ON`` when generating your
+build. You may also want to specify ``CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo`` in order
+to get representative timings while retaining debug information.
+
+Exporting Tracing Information
+-----------------------------
+
+By default, no tracing information is exported until a tracing backend has been
+specified. The choice of tracing backend is controlled with the
+:envvar:`ARROW_TRACING_BACKEND` environment variable. Possible values are:
+
+   - ``ostream``: emit textual log messages to stdout
+   - ``otlp_http``: emit OTLP JSON encoded traces to a HTTP server (by default,
+     the endpoint URL is "http://localhost:4318/v1/traces")
+   - ``arrow_otlp_stdout``: emit JSON traces to stdout
+   - ``arrow_otlp_stderr``: emit JSON traces to stderr
+
+For example, to enable exporting JSON traces to stdout, set::
+
+   export ARROW_TRACING_BACKEND=arrow_otlp_stdout
+
+At this point, running the program you've linked to your custom build of
+Arrow C++ should produce JSON traces on stdout.
+
+Visualizing Traces with Jaeger UI
+---------------------------------
+
+Analyzing trace information exported to stdout/stderr may involve writing custom
+processing scripts. As an alternative -- or even a complement -- to this
+process, the "all-in-one" `Jaeger <https://jaegertracing.io>`_ `Docker
+<https://www.docker.com/>`_ image is a relatively straightforward way of
+visualizing trace data and is suitable for local development and testing.
+
+Note: This assumes you have `Docker <https://www.docker.com/>`_ installed.
+
+First, change your tracing backend to ``otlp_http``::
+
+   export ARROW_TRACING_BACKEND=otlp_http
+
+Then start the Jaeger all-in-one container::
+
+   docker run \
+     -e COLLECTOR_OTLP_ENABLED=true \
+     -p 16686:16686 \
+     -p 4317:4317 \
+     -p 4318:4318 \
+     jaegertracing/all-in-one:1.35
+
+Now you should be able to run your program and view any traces in a web browser
+at http://localhost:16686. Note that unlike with other methods of exporting
+traces, no output will be made to stdout/stderr. However, if you tail your
+Docker container logs, you should see output when traces are received by the
+all-in-one container.
diff --git a/docs/source/cpp/user_guide.rst b/docs/source/cpp/user_guide.rst
index 22f01ac6b4d17..6a426b6c107e7 100644
--- a/docs/source/cpp/user_guide.rst
+++ b/docs/source/cpp/user_guide.rst
@@ -41,4 +41,5 @@ User Guide
    flight
    gdb
    threading
+   opentelemetry
    env_vars