I recently realized that magi tend to live their lives by the Season; accordingly, when they travel it tends to be near the solstices and equinoxes. Really, most would start a few days before and end a few days after, at least if they are going to a location within two weeks or so days travel. Emergencies happen, of course, and for distant travel a mage might devote an entire season to travel and a certain amount of tourism, but in general magi travel around the season starts and ends.
It seems to me this might enter mortal legend. Peasants near covenants could warn of magi being on the road near the start of spring, and mid-summer, and the turning of autumn. Accordingly, faeries would pick up on this, and add their own spice to the mix.
Furthermore, every seven years, a slew of magi travel to tribunal, which should really freak people out.
There is an argument for that noting being true at all....
We use seasons to track things but you could be doing all 4 seasons of your lab work, doing bit here, a bit there, reading at bedtime, throughout the entire year.
Don't magi have ways of traveling outside of just walking and being in a caravan? I don't know the entirety of the spell lists, nor would I ever claim to know every possible spontaneous spell combination. But isn't teleportation a thing in this system? In fact, TME has rules for instant transportation, which tells me that there have to be rules for this in one of the other books for people (all the references in TME in the sidebar are for non-human transportation such as animals and inanimate objects).
Even if teleportation isn't an option, concealing oneself through some form of invisibility should be possible, yes? And if this is the case, why would magi travel overland without concealing themselves? Why alert the local mundane lord to the presence of multiple magi headed to the same place?
Some magi have spells for travel, yes. Not all, and I don't think the assumption is that most have travel spells.
Some magi do disguise or hide themselves. Others are out and proud. Others are oblivious or dismissive of the response. Some have business among mortals.
It would still cause stories. Traveling disguised with The Gift is still story worthy. "A man riding a horse with a big cloak hiding his face rode through, I don't know why but I'm sure he was up to no good."
Teleporting to arcane connections is possible but you have to have an arcane connection to your target, a lot better for getting home. League Striding is really fast but a little risky since you have to roll a lot of spells and a lot of Finesse checks. Flying is always an option but you will still want to rest. My home group's preferred method is a flying ship carved with dragons crewed by jinn (Super subtle!). You can also pay Mercers for use of the portal network and then travel from there.
But for the most part I don't think Magi care if they cause a disturbance so long as they aren't disturbed. So a lot of us don't bother with invisibility and what not, just a cloak and some companions so the Gift doesn't get us a garbage room at the inn.